


Yellow Brick Road

by cloudyjenn



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Brief mention of homophobia, Dimension Travel, F/M, Hulks, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, M/M, Steve and Bucky are BFF 5eva, kick-ass dinosaur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5281979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyjenn/pseuds/cloudyjenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Steve Rogers killed the Red Hulk and saved Bucky, they were stuck in Greenland without a way out.  Aided by their new ally, Doc Green, they flee across the countryside in search of help.  What they find instead is a clever tricky wizard named Loki that helps them, but at a price.  Suddenly Steve is without his memory and they are stuck in an unfamiliar land where they meet a pair of cousins who've run afoul of Loki too.  Tony Stark's lost something important and his cousin Natasha will do anything to get it back.  Their journey to find the wizard lead them to Asgard itself where a lonely mourning god needs a new purpose.  A very loose interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, but with hulks, a big red dinosaur and 100% more gay romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yellow Brick Road

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the 2015 Cap/Iron Man Big Bang challenge. Please go and check out the wonderful accompanying art by pannanat/nat-draws-things! It's beautiful *and* cute which is not always easy to accomplish! 
> 
>  
> 
> **  
> [Link to Art Page](http://nat-draws-things.tumblr.com/post/135266963448)  
>  **
> 
> EDIT: I got assigned a second artist! Go look at this lovely artwork from kakushimiko! It's so adorable!
> 
> **  
> [Link to Second Art Page](http://kakushimiko.tumblr.com/post/135788950207/yellow-brick-road-by-cloudyjenn-after-steve)  
>  **
> 
>  
> 
> It's based on Marvel's recent Secret Wars storyline, but it doesn't utilize every comic. It's set mainly in the Planet Hulk, Thors and Carol Corps storylines as well as using elements of 616 and MCU. I wrote the fic before those runs were completed, so they aren't 100% canon compliant. See end notes for further spoilerific information. Or wait and be surprised as you read!
> 
> I wrote this because I loved Planet Hulk and its grumpy Steve. And because I've long wanted to write a shippy fic with Steve and Tony that also explored his deep friendship with Bucky. This seemed like the perfect setting! 
> 
> Much thanks to KagekaNecavi for listening to me moan on about this fic. <3

After war and destruction, they have only each other.  

They are warbound.  Brothers in arms.  There is nothing they would not do for each other, no step too far if it meant saving each other from death.  When they lost their third, Steve and Devil had travelled to the end of this Doomforsaken world to bring Bucky home.  

Only...there is no home anymore.  They saved Bucky and killed the Red Hulk, but now they are left in Greenland with nowhere to go.  As promised, Strange’s transport magic did not return.  Steve did Doom’s bidding, just as Doc Green said he would.  But what other choice did he have?  Bucky would have died in Red Hulk’s dungeon.  As it was, he was bleeding and needed help.

“Green!” Steve shouted.  He ripped away a portion of his red sash and pressed it against Bucky’s shoulder.  The wound bled sluggishly.  Red Hulk must have pressed something hot against Bucky’s flesh after ripping away his metallic arm because the skin was mostly sealed.  But blood still seeped through, so Steve knew he must get Bucky to medical help as soon as possible.  “Do you know where there might be a doctor in this place?”

“Goddamn it, that hurts,” Bucky growled, his voice barely above a whisper.  He was filthy and he smelled bad.  Red Hulk had obviously not allowed Bucky a way of keeping clean.  Steve wondered how long it had been since Bucky ate.  

“Sorry, brother,” he said.  “I’ll get you help, I promise.  Green?”

Green’s form finally appeared in the doorway of the dungeon.  He’d said he’d been keeping watch, but Steve had heard him fighting as well.  Though it galled him to admit it, having Green there to help them had been invaluable.  

“Doctors?  Hulks do not bother.  The sick and weak deserve to die.”  

Steve resisted the urge to snarl at him.  “We are not Hulks,” he grunted instead.  “Bucky needs help.  Medicines.  We need to leave this place.”

Green considered him briefly, but his attention was snagged away by a roar in the distance.  “Yes, I agree.  The mud kingdom is not going to be pleased with either of us.  Drag your friend onto the dinosaur and run as fast as he can go to the Southwest.”

“Southwest?” Steve asked.  

“I have heard...rumors,” Green hedged.  He did not look as though he believed them.  Another grudging thought as Steve realized he appreciated Green giving him even a sliver of hope.  “There’s a hermit living there on the very edge of Greenland that the other Hulks don’t like.  He makes them nervous.”

“That’s all?” Steve asked, frowning.

Green shrugged.  “Anyone that Hulks do not like is our most likely ally.”

Steve hated that he had a point.  And even if he did not, they needed to leave Greenland.  Perhaps this hermit would have useful information.  Or at least his presence could keep away the other Hulks enough for Steve, Bucky and Devil to make a plan.  “Fine,” Steve said.  “We run.  And you?”

Green’s smirk felt familiar by now.  “I will meet you there.  Don’t worry about this Hulk.”

He was gone before Steve could tell him he wasn’t worried.  Bucky made a soft huffing sound that drew Steve’s surprised attention.  He was _laughing_.

“You made a friend,” Bucky teased before coughing hard enough to gasp.  Steve stood and dragged Bucky to his feet.  

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he muttered.  Steve had never been very good at friends.  He’d grown up beside Bucky.  They’d been friends for so long that Steve didn’t even remember how they became friends.  Other people were unpredictable and uncomfortable.  Green was downright annoying.  “Come on.  We have to find Devil.”

Green had cleaned out the remaining Hulk guards that Steve hadn’t killed with his ax on the way in to find Bucky.  They were able to creep down the hall and towards the entrance stairway without much trouble.  The only problem was keeping Bucky upright while also carrying his metal arm.  Steve didn’t have much hope of finding someone who could reattach it, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave it behind.  Even when he didn’t feel hope, Steve had to keep up pretenses for Bucky’s sake.  

When they reached daylight, the corridors were also empty, but now Steve heard running, grunting and further away, fighting.  Now that Red Hulk was dead, there would be tribal dissonance.  Squabbling over establishing the next ruler.  The chaos and violence worked to their advantage this time because no Hulks came running when Steve put a hand to his mouth and bellowed Devil’s call.

“Raooooorrrr!”

Bucky winced beside him.  “Sorry, brother,” Steve murmured absently, hitching Bucky further up his side.  A second later, they heard an answering call and the sound of thundering feet.  Devil didn’t arrive as quickly as Steve had assumed, but he also arrived covered in blood and strips of green, red and purple flesh.  He must have fought through Hulks to arrive.  

When he saw Bucky alive and well, Devil reared back his head and let out another roar, this one lighter and full of joy.  

“Glad to see you too, buddy,” Bucky said tiredly.  The sash Steve had tied around his body to cover his shoulder was already damp with blood.  They needed to leave now.  

“Devil, we need to run,” Steve said.  Their bond was so strong that he didn’t need to explain further.  Devil dropped to his knees and lowered his head to the ground so Steve could help Bucky climb onto his back.  Steve jumped up after him, keeping a firm grasp on Bucky’s waist.  The last thing he needed was for Bucky to fall off Devil’s back and crack his head open.  “Green is meeting us Southwest of here.”  Steve heard a roar in the distance that was not as far away as he would like.  “Run, Devil, run now!”

And Devil ran.

*******

Bucky Barnes loved Steve Rogers dearly.  They were warbound, they were brothers and they were best friends.  He would do anything for him.  

But right now, Bucky wanted to punch him.  

That was likely the pain talking.  Bucky had been locked up in Red Hulk’s dungeon for weeks, it seemed.  Fed only a chunk of bread and tepid water twice a day.  Just enough to keep him alive as a bartering tool.  It hadn’t been until four days ago that Red Hulk had visited his cell to rip away his metallic arm.  The memory of that pain would not fade for a long time, perhaps years.  It hurt so much that Bucky blacked out and when he awoke, he’d been horrified to discover that someone had burned the wound closed.  

He didn’t like thinking about it.  But it was hard to avoid when the ache kept returning, the burnt flesh cracking and bleeding anew.  Bucky hurt all over.  His arm was a mess, his muscles were so tense they kept seizing up and his stomach gnawed with hunger.  

And Steve wouldn’t let them stop.  Devil had been running for hours.  There were no Hulks in sight and had not been since midday.  But Steve did not want to stop until he found this Doc Green again and the supposed hermit.  For all Bucky knew, Green was a liar, but it wasn’t like Steve to trust anyone.  It was enough to convince Bucky.

Still, he wanted a moment’s rest.  He’d wanted one for...years now really.  Bucky didn’t regret joining the war.  He didn’t regret pledging as warbound to Devil and Steve.  But they had been fighting and running for over five years now.  It’d been five years since Bucky had slept without worry.  Since he’d last seen his home whole and undamaged.  

Five years since he’d been alone with a woman.

Bucky tried to bury that thought very deep, but it simmered down low in his gut.  Steve had never had that problem.  Bucky didn’t know if he didn’t care for women or if he didn’t care for sex at all.  He’d been good about disappearing for a few hours if Bucky wanted to have sex, but he never mentioned any of his own.  Too bad.  He was missing out.

Or maybe he was lucky because they were stuck in the land of fucking Hulks and Bucky wasn’t interested in anything they had to offer.

“Would you stop if I told you I had to pee?” Bucky finally asked.  “Devil, I’m gonna pee on you if you don’t stop.”

  
Devil just grunted and kept on running.  “No fair,” Bucky whined.  “You’re supposed to be my warbound too, you know.”

Steve finally sighed and Bucky heard resignation in it.  “Devil, that stream to the left?” he said, patting Devil’s left side.  The dinosaur instantly turned and ran towards a stream rushing faster than seemed reasonable.  Bucky scowled.  

“Playing favorites,” he muttered.  

The noise Devil made sounded suspiciously like laughter.  

The creek ran alongside a mountain they’d been avoiding.  Steve probably didn’t like the idea of caves.  Or the system of bushes and gnarled trees growing up the side of the sharply steep hillside.  Too many places to hide.  Bucky agreed, but he _needed_ a drink, something to eat and a moment to catch his breath.  

He winced as his feet hit the ground too hard, despite Steve’s efforts to catch him dismounting Devil.  The dinosaur immediately waded into the water, releasing a sigh as cool water rushed over his scales.  Bucky pointed at him.  “I _knew_ you’d need a break too.”

Bucky walked away to find a convenient bush to relieve himself and then came back, plucking at his shirt.  “Help me?”  Bucky and Steve no longer cared about nudity around each other.  Growing up as rough and tumble boys in Brooklyn, they never had much, but fighting down in the muck and filth of war, the mud of the earth mixed with blood and innards had stripped it away even more.  War did not allow for privacy.  

Steve untied the sash wrapped around Bucky’s shoulders, but that was as far as he got before a crashing sound had him in a defensive position.  It was the first time Bucky realized how helpless he really was.  The first time he lost his arm, God Doom had replaced it with the metallic arm within hours.  Now Bucky was stuck trying to fight while off balance.  Some warbound he was now.  He couldn’t help Steve or Devil at all.

Luckily, it quickly became apparent they weren’t needed to fight.  A dark green hulk wearing only a pair of dirtied ripped shorts rolled out of a low stretch of underbrush and just a second later, Doc Green leapt down on top of him.  Bucky hadn’t been in Greenland long, but still, he could tell this hulk fought with special ferocity.  But Doc Green gave as good as he got.  His form was more refined, his motions elegant.  Someone had taught Green to fight.  

“We...have...no quarrel with...you,” Green barked out through clenched teeth as he placed well-aimed kicks and jabs along the hulk’s torso and head.  

The hulk simply roared in apparent rage.  Bucky felt heat flash up his neck when Steve jumped in front of him, despite just thinking he was helpless.  He did not want Steve to think he had to protect Bucky from every little threat.  “Steve-”

But he didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.  The hulk abruptly stopped fighting.  Doc Green couldn’t stop one last punch before pausing in surprise as the hulk under him went limp.  He scrambled off the hulk, likely worried about a trick.

It was no trick.  To their amazement, the hulk began _shrinking_.  His green skin lightened into a pale pink as his muscles disappeared and his body shrank to perhaps a fourth of its size.  The being left behind looked like a normal human.  A thin reedy human with wispy brown hair and a pair of purple shorts now far too large for him.  

“Ngghh…”

“What happened?” Steve demanded.

Doc Green crouched beside the softly moaning man.  “I was coming to meet you as we decided.  I had gotten perhaps a kilometer from here when this hulk attacked.  We must be in his territory.  Hello?  Can you hear me?” he asked when the man opened light brown eyes.  

“I...yes.  I’m...what’s going on?”  

Green helped the man sit up.  Bucky went to the sack holding their few supplies and dug a cup out from under his poor detached arm.  He dipped it in the river and brought it for the man.  

“Oh.”  The man sounded faintly surprised by Bucky’s kindness.  “Thank you.  I...good lord.”  Bucky followed his gaze to where Devil sat across the stream, his small eyes concerned.  

“Don’t worry about him.  He won’t hurt you,” Bucky assured him.

“Unless you attack one of these two,” Green added.  

Bucky shot him a glare.  “Ignore him.  What’s your name?  I’m Bucky.  This is Doc Green, my warbondeds Steve and Devil is across the way.”

It seemed like the man was having trouble processing that information.  Bucky let him dig through the confusion, but he felt Steve losing his patience beside them.  Steve never had liked delays in missions.  

“Bruce,” the man finally said.  “Sorry, it’s hard to think after it happens.  Bruce is my name.  Did I...I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”

Doc Green stood up again and dusted off his hands.  “No harm done.”  He contemplated the man for a long moment.  “What are you?”

Bruce sighed.  “I’d like to know.  I’m hulk.  I have gamma, but it...it’s unstable.”  When he started trying to get up, Steve stepped forward to help him.  Bucky swallowed his frustration.  Useless fucking arm.  

“We’re looking for someone,” Steve said, skipping over Bruce’s confession like it didn’t matter.  Steve didn’t mean to come across so coldly, Bucky knew.  Just when he became focused, it was hard to sway his attention.  "A hermit.  The other hulks avoid him."

Bruce grabbed at his oversized shorts as they slid down his skinny hips.  His human body could not be more different than his hulk body.  Perhaps he did not eat much.  It might be hard to get food as an outcast.  Speaking of food, Bucky's stomach still ached.  Steve's store of dried meat hadn't quite filled him up.  

"That is probably me," Bruce admitted.  "The other hulks find my changing nature disturbing.  Not that I blame them."

Steve made a derisive noise.  “They aren’t exactly excellent judges of character.  Can you help us?” he asked, cutting straight to the point.  “Bucky needs medical care.  His wound is bleeding again and he needs rest.”

“We all do,” Bucky added.  He sat down on the ground as a wave of nausea crashed over him.  Devil jumped across the stream and laid down behind Bucky just as he hit the ground.  Bucky relaxed against his familiar scales.  “I’m okay,” he assured both Devil and Steve, who also leapt to his side.  

“You are not.  Your wounds are bleeding,” Steve fussed.

“Yeah...I think you’re right,” Bucky said breathlessly.  The world swam before his eyes and the next moment, Bucky knew only darkness.

*******

He woke up in a bed.  His head ached, but his arm did not.  At least not as much as before.  It was covered in some kind of cloth.  Not Steve’s sash because it did not feel sticky or crusty.  

Bucky opened his eyes.  Above him he saw a crude wooden ceiling.  Further along towards the far wall, there hanged a few bundles of dried plants, perhaps herbs and two fat skinned birds.  He heard a fire crackling somewhere and under it, the sound of voices.

“...comes around now and again to...play with us, I guess you could say.  He offered to heal me, but I didn’t trust him.  I wouldn’t trust him if I were you, but the choice is yours.”

It took a moment to dredge up his memory.  Bruce.  The unstable hulk.  This home must be his.  Not bad for an outcast.  Bruce must be clever and industrious.

“We need to get away from here no matter the cost,” Steve answered.  His tone was pensive.  He had always felt responsible for Bucky, even from before they were warbound.  It comforted Bucky.  It used to worry him because how would Steve react when Bucky inevitably got married and had a family?  But now he knew there wasn’t much chance of it.  They had only each other and Devil and Bucky had to accept it.

“Alright.  He told me I could contact him with the stone,” Bruce said.  “But I think we should wait a few days or even more until your friend is healed.  The other hulks won’t find you here for awhile.”

“You should be very careful with him, Rogers,” another voice said.  Doc Green, yes.  Bucky had forgotten about Steve’s new traveling companion.  It amused him greatly that Steve’s first companion outside of himself and Devil was a big green hulk that annoyed him so much.  “I know of this Loki.  He’s dangerous.”

“How do you know of him?” Steve asked, the suspicion he’d cultivated over the years coloring his tone.  

“I just do,” Doc Green replied, no doubt pissing Steve off.  “It’s up to you and your troupe, but just be careful.”

Steve grunted a noncommittal sound.  Silence fell between the group.  Bucky’s focus turned to the smell of cooking meat and the gurgle in his stomach.  He still hadn’t had a real meal.  Bucky turned to call out for Steve, but a low growl caught Steve’s attention first.  Devil was outside the house, but his snout rested on a pillow lining an open window.  He’d seen Bucky moving and growled a warning to Steve.

“Bucky!”  Steve jumped from his seat and came to sit in the chair beside the bed.  While Bucky had been passed out, Steve was given a new white shirt to wear.  Bucky saw dark stitching along the side and he suspected that Steve had repurposed one of Bruce’s much smaller shirts.  “You have been sleeping for almost a day, brother,” he said gently.  “You need to eat.”

“I was going to say the same thing.”  Bucky tried to sit up, but he needed Steve’s help to manage it.  He really missed having that arm.  “What happened?  Is this Bruce’s home?”

“Yes, he brought us to his cabin and treated your wounds.  He’s a doctor,” Steve explained, sounding amazed.  It’d been years since they were seen by a real doctor.  “Not a medical doctor, he says, but he knows how to make a healing salve from plants.  Your shoulder wounds should close up naturally now.”

“Leaving me without my arm,” Bucky said with a heavy sigh.  Steve didn’t answer for a long moment.

“Yes.  I’m...Bucky, I should have-”

“No,” Bucky interrupted firmly.  “Stop that.  You’re one man, Steve.  You can’t prevent all harm coming to me, okay?  Let’s just move on.  How is Devil?”

Steve looked reluctant to leave his apology unspoken, but eventually he respected Bucky’s wishes.  “He’s worried about you too, but unhurt.  He’s been well-fed.  Bruce is very generous.  He made us stew.  Let me get you some.”  

The soup Steve brought him smelled fantastic.   _Hunger really is the best seasoning_ , Bucky thought as he burnt his tongue in his haste to eat.  Steve made a clucking scolding sound, but then he smiled.  How long since he’d seen Steve smile?  His warbound was too serious for his own good.  

“What were you talking about?  A stone and a man?” Bucky asked between heavenly bites.

“Bruce knows a wizard.  A man who came to him a few cycles ago and offered to heal him in exchange for something valuable.  Bruce refused him,” Steve explained.

“Sounds like Bruce is a wise man,” Bucky said.  He didn’t like magic.  Even if it had given him a metallic arm after he lost his original one in battle.  “Magic is a demanding mistress.”

Steve stayed silent again.  Some people mistook Steve’s silence for reticence or even ignorance, but Bucky knew he simply needed time to consider every angle of a concept before he spoke.  “I need to get you both away from here,” he finally said.  “It’s not safe.  Either the hulks or the gamma will eventually overwhelm one of us and I can’t have that.”

Bucky nodded.  Deep down, he agreed.  “But Bruce said we can stay for a few days?  You need to rest too,” he said sternly.  If they were going to make a daring escape and end up in yet another land, they needed their strength.  

Steve smiled.  “Yes, yes.  We will rest.  And then we will leave.”

“Fine.”  Bucky held out the empty bowl.  “More soup!”

Steve’s laugh sounded as good as the food tasted.

******

They stayed with Bruce for five days.  Each passing day made the tension in Steve’s belly grow, but he held his tongue.  Bucky was right.  They both needed rest.  Bucky needed to heal.  Bruce applied the salve to Bucky’s wounds every morning and every evening.  On the third day, Steve realized he could see them beginning to grow new skin.  He asked Bruce to teach him to make the salve, but Bruce said the plant was only found in Greenland.  He promised to make them a big batch before they left.

Bruce was an unusual man.  His two natures surprised Steve.  Most of the time, he was a curious intelligent man who placed a high priority on generosity and ethics.  

Then something would trigger an attack and his gamma would overwhelm him.  His hulk form was nearly mindless with rage.  The only part of Bruce that remained intact kept his hulk side from destroying his home or his new friends, but otherwise he was an entirely destructive force.

Devil seemed to enjoy when Bruce hulked out.  He distracted the creature with sparring.  Well, Devil considered it sparring.  The hulk creature seemed to find it even more enraging than anything else, but that turned out to be a good thing.  The faster Bruce as the hulk reached a climax of anger, the faster his cells would stabilized and turn him back into a normal human.

“I wish it wasn’t triggered by anger,” Bruce confessed to Steve late on the third night while Bucky slept.  Doc Green had disappeared yet again.  He seemed even more restless than Steve now and kept disappearing into the brush for hours.  Steve hardly minded.  The hulk bothered him deeply for reasons he could not yet pinpoint.

“Anger is a healthy emotion,” Steve countered as he snapped peas from Bruce’s garden.  “What you have is rage.”

Bruce made a soft agreeing noise.  “I don’t know if it’s my natural emotion seeing my homeland overtaken by the gamma or if it’s the gamma itself gone wrong in my system.”  

They snapped peas in silence until Bruce sighed and rubbed at his eyes.  “Maybe I should just take Loki up on his offer.”

Steve didn’t comment.  He knew how dangerous this Loki likely was, but he’d do anything to protect his warbondeds.  Desperation had led him all the way to Doomforsaken Greenland, hadn’t it?  “I can’t say what you should do,” Steve finally said.  “But I will say your rage fits have lessened since we have been here.”

Bruce’s gaze snapped up from his hands, his expression a complicated mix of guilt and hope.  “You’ve noticed, huh.  I guess...being around other people.  I didn’t realize how much my isolation was affecting me.”

“You could come with us,” Steve offered.  He wasn’t normally one to include others in his plans, but Bruce had likely saved their lives.  Taking him along to find a new home would not be too heavy a burden to repay that kindness.  

But Bruce was shaking his head.  “Not until I find a way to fix my little problem.  I can’t be trusted in another land.  At least here the other hulks can defend themselves from me.”  

Steve respected his decision.  But for the first time in years, he felt a twinge of discomfort over the fate of someone who wasn’t Devil or Bucky.  Bucky would probably be pleased.  He always said Steve was too closed off.  

Two days after their conversation, Steve woke up with a sense of purpose.  Bucky’s arm had healed enough, they were all well-rested and Bruce had given them at least a month’s worth of healing salve.  Today, they would leave.  

“Don’t do anything stupid, please,” Bucky said as they packed their things into a new sturdier sack Bruce had given them.  “When this Loki makes his offer, don’t just accept it, okay?  Make sure to give it serious thought.”

Steve didn’t answer because he didn’t want to lie to Bucky.  

“Are you coming with us?” Steve asked of Doc Green instead.  

To his very great surprise, Doc nodded.  “Yes.”

“Really?  I thought ‘gamma showed you your natural state’ or however you put it,” Steve said, eyebrows raised.  Like it or not, he owed Doc Green their lives too and would make him the same offer as he had Bruce.  

“And I still feel that way,” Green assured him.  “But I have my reasons.”

Steve didn’t bother asking anything else.  He attached their bag to Devil, who growled and rubbed his head against Steve’s chest.  Steve patted him.  Devil had been very patient during this whole healing excursion.  The dinosaur didn’t like being separated from them while Steve stayed inside to watch over Bucky.  It would be good to bunk down outside with Devil soon.  

“Alright, we’re ready,” he said to Bruce.

Bruce pulled a faintly green rock from his pocket and nodded at Steve.  “Good luck.”

“Thank you for your help,” Bucky said, reaching over with his remaining hand to squeeze Bruce’s shoulder.  

Bruce only nodded at him, his expression tense and then he closed his fingers around the rock.  After a moment of concentrating, it began to glow that same green color, but stronger.  Steve didn’t like the color.  It felt uncomfortably cold.  

The glowing turned brighter and brighter until Steve had to look away to protect his eyes.  “Bruce…?”  

“Aha, so you’ve changed your mind!  Excellent, you...oh.  Oh this is _wonderful_.”

A tall slender man with long jet-black hair and icy black eyes appeared as if from the air itself.  Devil reared back and let out a short roar that didn’t seem to phase the man.  His clever cold gaze flicked from Bruce to Steve to Doc Green and he started laughing.  “Too too perfect.  Bruce Banner.  What have you got here?”

Bruce didn’t return his smile.  “My friends need your help.  I’m still declining your offer.”

“Oh Dr. Banner, your pride never changes, does it?”  The man turned his gaze back to Steve.  “You are not who I expected to see.  I’ve never seen you look like a Roman Gladiator before.  Too funny.  And I see you have Bucky here as per usual.  I must say, you usually have a different companion in red, but who am I to judge a man’s sexual tastes?”

Steve had no clue what this man was nattering on about and frankly, didn’t care.  “Bruce said you could help us,” he said.

“All business, also as usual.”  The man spared a glance for Doc Green and just kept chuckling.  “Too funny,” he repeated.  “Yes, I am Loki and I can help you.  Well, depending on what you want and what you’re willing to give up for it.”

Bucky shifted beside Steve, obviously displeased by the whole exercise.  “We need to leave Greenland and travel to another land,” Steve explained.  “Myself, Bucky, Devil and Doc Green.”

“Doc Green?  Hilarious.”  Loki held out a hand and a long metal scepter grew from nothing.  “Alright, yes, fine.  Now about payment-”

“Hold on,” Steve said as a new thought emerged.  How could he have not yet considered this?  “Can you also reattach Bucky’s arm?”

“Don’t get greedy,” Loki said irritably.  “I will transport you to a world with someone who can, but that’s your best offer from me.”  Steve scowled, but it only seemed to amuse Loki.  “If I gave you exactly what you wanted, how would I get my fun?”  

Devil grunted at him.  Loki shot him a glare.  “Not impressed.   _Anyway_ as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, I can offer you a ticket out of here in exchange for a memory.”

Steve gave him a blank look.  “A memory?” Bucky asked, his tone edgy.  “Just one?”

“Only one,” Loki confirmed.  Steve didn’t trust his smile for one second, but he had no other choice and after all, one single memory didn’t seem so bad.  

“You have a deal,” Steve said.  “I will give you the memory.”

Bucky shifted again.  Steve ignored him.  One memory was hardly worth their lives.  

“Excellent!”  Loki enthused.

“Which memory are you taking?” Steve asked warily.

Loki waved his scepter over Steve’s head and his grin turned demented.  

“I didn’t say a single memory.  I said I was taking a memory.  Your memory, Steve Rogers.”

“What...no!”  

But Bucky was too late.  Loki’s scepter shot green light at Steve and then quickly spread to the others in their group.  Steve braced himself for pain, but what came over him felt more like sinking into oblivion.  He fought against the feeling, but his thoughts came apart, dissolving like sugar in water and Steve couldn’t focus.  

He floated down into darkness hoping Bucky and Devil would now be safe.

*******

Fucking magic.  Bucky _knew_ this had been a bad idea.  One second he was jumping towards Loki to stop him and the next he was stumbling forward onto a dark cobblestoned street.  They were in a city with actual buildings.  Bucky hadn’t seen an undamaged city in over a year.  A single glance told him it wasn’t nearly as large or advanced as their own Brooklyn, but it was still a nice sight.

Or would be if he weren’t holding up an unconscious Steve.  “Doc?” Bucky said quietly.  Off in the distance, he heard music, but at the moment, they were alone.  A sickle moon and red paper lanterns strung along the street threw light down on them.  Too much light.  

“This way,” Doc said, jerking his head to one side.  “I smell horses.  There may be a barn where we can hide.”

Anyone who’d seen them in the Kiliseum would recognize Devil, but Bucky knew not all the battleworlds were aware of what happened among the other worlds.  If this world did not, seeing a fifteen foot high red dinosaur could cause some trouble.  They needed to lay low until they figured out what happened to Steve and whether they could navigate this world without hiding.  

The small group ducked down an alley.  Bucky couldn’t lift Steve with only one arm, so Devil had to carefully pick him up in his mouth.  “Thank you, brother,” Bucky said softly.  Down the alley, he noticed brackets holding unlit candles.  If this world did not even have electricity, how could Loki have thought someone lived here who could fix his arm?  

Bucky had _known_ they should not trust that charlatan.  

“Here.”  Doc opened a door and pushed Bucky through.  He took Steve from Devil’s mouth himself and carried him inside, laying him gently on a pile of hay.  A larger door could be unlatched once inside and Doc did so, allowing Devil in.  

“This will be fine for now, but only until the owner returns to feed his animals,” he said, glancing to stalls filled with resting horses.  

Bucky nodded.  “I’m the only one who won’t stand out here, I think,” he said.  “I’ll go and see if I cannot learn more information.  You stay here and watch over Steve,” he said sternly.  Bucky trusted Doc Green because Steve did, but he would not hold back if Doc caused Steve injury.  

“I will,” Doc promised, his tone oddly sincere.  

Bucky gave Steve a worried glance.  If he were just knocked out, that would be fixable.  But Loki said he’d taken his memory.  His entire memory.  Steve wouldn’t remember their childhood or the battles they fought or the warbound ceremony when they promised fealty to army and swore loyalty to each other.  

He sighed.  He couldn’t focus on that now.  Right now, he needed to find them a safe house.  

“I’ll be back soon.”

It was a festival night.  Bucky left the barn and wandered into a party.  The lanterns became more numerous the closer he walked towards a courtyard where he finally saw people.  Healthy normal people who weren’t beleaguered by war and loss.

_Women._  Bucky couldn’t help staring.  Beautiful sweet smelling women with long curls tumbling down their backs.  Older women with rounded hips and soft bosoms and wise smiles.  Little girls skipping along with their friends, their hands sticky with candy and their eyes bright with happiness.  

They all wore long dresses, some with elaborate bustles and long leather boots with buttons all the way up the side that he glimpsed as they danced by.  The men were dressed equally old-fashioned with pinstripe pants, spats, smart top hats and pocket watch chains.  Bucky looked out of place in his kilt, sleeveless white shirt and leather sandals.  

All around the courtyard were booths manned by people showing off wares, selling food and giving demonstrations.  Bucky looked them over carefully and finally spotted one advertising “Steam powered motorcars”.  Bucky didn’t know how steam could power a car, but it was the most technologically advanced thing he’d seen and tackling the problem with his arm seemed easier than aiming in the darkness for a place to hide.  

When he got closer to the booth, Bucky read a sign that said, /The amazing almost magical steam powered motor car will take you from A to B in minutes!  Brought to you by Justin Hammer himself!/

But the person sitting at the booth was a woman and Bucky was fairly certain Justin was a man’s name.  “Hello?”

The woman gave him an odd look, likely because of his clothes.  “Yes?”

“I’m looking for someone who can fix things,” Bucky said vaguely.  “Complicated machinery.”  He refused to say it was magic.  Bucky believed that anything that could be magicked could be built through mundane means.  

“You want Stark,” she said immediately.  “Hammer’s an asshole and he’s lucky I haven’t scratched out his eyes.”

Bucky blinked and took a step back.  He didn’t know what happened between this woman and Justin Hammer and frankly, he did not want to know.  “Stark?”  

“Stark’s place is over on Manhattan street,” she said, pointing through the crowds to the right.  “I can tell you’re not from around here, friend.  Do yourself a favor and get a hat and some pants.”

“...thank you,” Bucky said, giving her a nod and escaping quickly through the crowds.  

Bucky had to stop a few people to ask for better directions.  Each one gave him the same strange look, but they were polite enough in directing him to Manhattan street.  The buildings here were significantly larger and finer than those near the stable where the others hid.  He walked along the brightly lit street, carefully reading the signs on each building.  All of the way down the lane, he stopped in front of a shop with a sign reading /Stark’s Mechanics and Oddities./  The shop had several stories and spanned twice as much space as the other shops.  A closed sign hung on the door, but Bucky was not deterred.  He walked up white marble steps and knocked firmly on the door.

A moment later, the door swung open and Bucky found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.  

“Oh.”  The woman holding the gun dropped it.  “You’re not Justin Hammer.”

Bucky couldn’t even speak.  The woman giving him a raised eyebrow was easily the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.  By far.  No contest.  Not even close.  She had bright red hair, clear green eyes and she wore a form fitting black dress.  Bucky instantly imagined how her soft curves would feel pressed against his body.  

She put a hand on her hip.  “Well?  What the hell do you want?  And come to think of it, why the hell are you dressed that way?  It’s Centennial Day, not the Haunting.”  

“I...haunting?”  

“Nat?  Who is it?”  

Behind her, a man emerged from the door down the hallway from where they stood.  He was the first man Bucky had seen that wasn’t dressed formally.  His sleeveless white shirt was greasy and there was a burn along the thigh of his pants.  Her husband, perhaps?  Bucky found himself violently hoping he was not.

“No idea.  He’s been gaping like a fish and not speaking.  I was about to slam the door in his face,” she said.

“No, please.  I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect…”  Bucky didn’t know how to politely say that he didn’t think he’d find such a lovely woman here.  The man seemed to understand if his soft snort was any indication.  “I’m sorry,” Bucky repeated.  “But I need your help and I was directed here by the woman at Justin Hammer’s booth.”

“I see Hammer’s people are still smarter than him,” the man commented.  

“What do you need?” the woman...Nat, the man had called her...said.  Her tone stayed slightly suspicious, but she wasn’t trying to throw him out.  “We’re actually closed.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where else to go,” Bucky confessed.  “I’m not from this land.  I arrived here tonight with my warbondeds and our friend.  We need a place to stay and I need someone to fix my arm.”

“Warbondeds?” Nat asked, frowning.

“Yeah, we’re not a physician’s,” the man said, glancing at his arm.  

“Not this arm.  My other one.  This one.”  Bucky opened his bag and pulled out the metallic arm.  The man’s eyes lit up and he strode down the hall.

“What do we have here?” he murmured.

“Tony…” Nat said.  She sounded exasperated, but under it, Bucky thought he detected fondness.  He wished he could tell if it were romantic or platonic, but the woman wasn’t as effusive as the others he’d known.  

“You can stay here,” Tony offered. “May I?”  He grabbed the arm before Bucky could respond.  “Fascinating.  Where did you get this?  I haven’t seen this kind of technology outside my own lab and even that’s not quite as advanced as this and you should know it’s killing me to admit it-”

“Tony!”  Nat stepped between them and pushed them apart.  Bucky felt a thrill simply from having her hand on his chest.  “We can’t just invite the crazy dress wearing man to live with us.”

Tony looked confused.  “Sure we can.  We have the space and it’s his arm-”

“He’s a stranger!  He could be dangerous!” she countered.    
  


“I am dangerous,” Bucky confirmed.  “But not to you.”

That confession drew up her up short.  She contemplated him with less suspicion and more curiosity.  “See?” Tony said.  “Not dangerous to us.  C’mon, Nat, you could kill him with your pinky finger and I want to play with this arm.  It’s just him and…your what did you call it?”

“Warbound,” Bucky supplied.  “My brothers in arms and our friend.  Two humans, a hulk and a dinosaur.”

Both Tony and Nat stared at him for a brief moment.  Then Nat whirled on Tony.

“This is a bad idea-”

“ _Dinosaur_ , Nat,” Tony said.  “I have to see this.”

******

It turned out that the Stark home had even bigger stables than those where Devil and Doc were currently hiding.  Tony told Bucky that Devil could stay there as long as he wanted; they hadn’t had horses since Tony had developed his motorized cart.  Bucky didn’t think Devil would like staying cooped up for long, but he appreciated having a place to hide him while they found a way of leaving.

As it happened, the people in the city were not accustomed to seeing fifteen foot tall dinosaurs, Tony confided in him.  

“I would take the back routes back here.  In fact, I’ll just go with you,” Tony said.  Nat began to protest, but Tony cut her off with an annoyed grunting sound.  “I’m not made of spun candy, Nat.  I’ll be fine.”

It sounded like an old argument.  Nat glared hard and stalked away.  Even in anger, Bucky found her lovely.  If anything the anger brightened her already sparkling eyes.  

Tony looked guilty as he shrugged on a jacket and guided Bucky out into the night.  “Sorry about that,” he muttered.  

Bucky glanced at Tony as they passed under one of the street torches.  His expression looked troubled, but determined.  Bucky supposed Nat could be a worrier.  She had not struck him as the type, but when it came to family or friends who were as close as family, people acted strangely.

Tony led Bucky through streets that remained empty and dark aside from dying torches or weak lanterns.  He still heard strains of music and laughter, but Tony knew the town well and seemed to know which streets were safe.  “You landed on a good night,” Tony said after several moments of silence.  “Innovation is usually more crowded, but it’s Centennial Day.”

“Innovation?  That’s the name of the town?”

Tony eyed him with growing curiosity.  “Innovation is the largest city in all of York.  Where did you come from that you never heard of it?”  

Bucky didn’t know if he should explain about Loki and where they’d come from.  Navigating this whole situation would be so much easier if Steve were awake.  Thinking of his warbound made Bucky’s heart clench.  Loki had _stolen_ Steve’s memories.  He’d tricked them and now Bucky didn’t know what to do.  

“It’s a long story,” he finally said.

Tony seemed to accept Bucky’s evasiness.  Or perhaps he was simply distracted by turning the corner and running full tilt into Doc Green.  

The hulk grabbed Tony before he could stumble off his feet.  It was only when Doc released Tony that he seemed to really see him.

Bucky had not yet seen Doc Green show so much emotion.  His expression fell slack with shock and before he managed to smooth his reaction, Bucky thought he glimpsed something very painful in Doc’s dark cold eyes.  

“Good god, you’re a giant fellow, aren’t you?”  Tony said as he straightened his shirt.  In the darkness of the street, he probably couldn’t tell that Doc’s skin was actually a deep green instead of black or brown.  “Sorry about that.”

He started going around him, but Bucky held him back with one hand.  “No, this is one of my companions.  He goes by Doc Green.”

Tony looked abruptly interested.  He didn’t seem fazed by the way Doc was staring at him.  “Oh?  Is that ‘doc’ merely a nickname or are you really a physician?  Or perhaps a scientist?” Tony asked eagerly.

“Tony is a scientist,” Bucky explained.  

“Yes,” Doc said softly.  “I would have guessed.”

Tony's enthusiasm faded in favor of light suspicion.  "Have we met?" he asked, wary.

"No, never," Doc assured him.  “And to answer your question, I am not a physician nor would I call myself a real scientist.  I am an admirer of science and I needed a new form of address once the gamma set in.”

“Gamma?” Tony asked, fascinated again.  

Bucky walked alongside them as Tony and Doc quietly discussed gamma radiation and the effect it had on the human body.  Tony gave a startled sound as they passed under a lantern and he finally glimpsed Doc’s dark green skin.  Far from being scared of Doc, the revelation seemed to make Tony _more_ interested and they nearly walked past the barn until Bucky recognized it.

“Hush,” he scolded the chattering duo.  “We’re here.  We have to get Devil over to your home quickly.”  

“Oh, is that the plan?” Doc asked.  He didn’t sound all that surprised.  “I hope you have proper room for this behemoth,” he added as he hauled open the door to reveal Devil.  The dinosaur was currently sleeping, curled up in a large ball like a housecat and snoring soft grumbles.  Tony paused in the doorway, his mouth slack with awe.  Bucky supposed hearing about Devil couldn’t really prepare a person for seeing him.

“Devil?”  Bucky walked up to him and patted his side.  Devil awoke with a start and uncurled from around what turned out to be Steve’s still unconscious form.  “Damn,” Bucky said, squatting down and taking Steve’s pulse.  Still alive, thankfully.  “My warbound is still unconscious,” he explained to Tony.

Tony peered down at Steve with the same kind of fervent curiosity he’d shown Doc Green.  “He’s huge too.  Are all the people from your country gigantic?”

“Not exactly,” Bucky muttered, distracted.  “Okay, I think the easiest thing to do would be for me to hold Steve on Devil’s back while you guide us back to your home.”  

Doc helped Bucky haul Steve onto Devil’s back and then their flight began.  Tony was the one who upped the pace and kept urging them on until they were practically running through the streets of Innovation.  Perhaps the ever quieting noise of the party worried him.  Soon the townspeople would begin wandering back to their homes and they didn’t need to see a giant redscaled dinosaur in their path.  Bucky thought he saw a few lights flicker on in windows they passed, but otherwise, they made it back to the Stark home without incident.  

Nat was waiting for them in the courtyard.  When Devil landed from a massive jump over the courtyard wall, she merely sighed and beckoned him towards the barn.  Bucky had to be impressed by a woman that could handle a dinosaur landing her backyard like it was an everyday occurrence.  

“You,” she said to Devil.  “Stay here.  I’ll bring you some...meat?”  Devil roared an approval.  “Ah, okay, good.  Tony, please give Big Green here one of the guest rooms and you,” she said to Bucky.  “You help me get Sleepy into the house and into a bed.”

Bucky slung Steve over his shoulders and stood up, awaiting her instruction.  “Okay,” she said, shrugging.  “That works too.”  She led them through the back door and up one flight of stairs into a sweet-smelling bedroom.  “This is my room.  We can move him when he wakes up, but all my medicines are in here,” she explained.

Bucky probably should not have felt jealous of Steve for getting to lay in her bed and having her hands on him as she began loosening his belt for his comfort.  “Thank you,” he said as sincerely as he could.  “It means more than I can say that you’re helping us.”

“I should thank you,” she said as she went to a cupboard and pulled out a bowl, crushing up some kind of herb in it.  “Anything living that draws Tony’s attention is a good thing.”

Bucky didn’t know what to do with that comment.  “Well...I’ll go and see if he wants to start on my arm.”

Nat’s only response was a distracted hum.  

******

When he woke up, Steve heard a soft humming sound.  A young woman’s voice.  He didn’t recognize the tune or the voice.  After a moment, she broke out into actual soft singing and Steve didn’t recognize the language.  

He bolted upright and then winced when pain flooded his temples.  The room where he lay did not look familiar.  Along the far wall, a cool breeze fluttered through a flimsy sheer window covering.  A tall cabinet faced the bed.  Its door was open just enough for Steve to see the edge of a long green frock.  He registered a hint of perfume.  Steve must be in the lady’s room.

“Oh good, you’re awake.  I was tired of sleeping on the sofa.”  Steve finally spotted the woman sitting beside the window working on what looked like some kind of weapon.  He frowned.  

“Who are you?”

“I’m Natasha Romanoff,” she said, standing and setting aside her weapon to come closer to him.  “I’m supposed to tell you you’re Steve Rogers.  Your friend said you wouldn’t remember.  He’s going to be upset he wasn’t here when you woke up, but he’s in my cousin’s lab at the moment.”

Very little of what she said made sense to him.  He didn’t remember a friend or this woman or her cousin.  How could he not even remember his own name?  Steve reached up to press his fingers over his eyes, concentrating hard.  

Nothing.  There was nothing.  He could remember concepts and language, but not details.  He knew what a cousin was, but he did not know this woman’s cousin.  

“What happened?”

“You’ll have to get tall, dark and armless to explain it to you,” she said.  “I wasn’t there.  I was just watching you to make sure you didn’t run away, which you haven’t, so that’s a plus.  Are you thirsty?  Here.”  She poured water into a thick bottomed glass and handed it to him.  “Drink up.  We have some food too.”

The water did help freshen his mouth.  Steve drank the entire glass and then handed it back.  “How do I know you?”  Waking up in her bed gave him an uneasy feeling.  Natasha was undoubtedly a beautiful woman, but she did not make Steve feel anything a wife should make a husband feel.  He hoped they were not intimate partners.

“You don’t.  We just met.  Your friend came here looking for help and my bleeding heart cousin agreed,” she said, rolling her eyes.  Despite his situation, it made Steve smile slightly.  

“You sound very fond of him.”  

His statement surprised her.  Perhaps she thought she hid her affection better than she did.  Maybe Steve was the kind of person to read others easily.  He couldn’t know.  So much he didn’t know.

“Well, he has his uses,” she allowed.  “I’m going to get you something to eat.  I’ll send your friend up here if my cousin will release him from his clutches.”

She sounded like she was kidding.  Steve didn’t get a chance to ask for clarification.  Natasha whirled out of the room, her black skirts rustling and Steve was left alone.  He ran his hands down over his chest and legs to make sure he was intact.  Nothing felt broken or injured.  Steve gave his head a onceover as well.  Nothing.  How did he lose his memory without some kind of injury?  

He did not have long to contemplate it.  Just a moment later, he heard a clattering sound and then the door flew open again to reveal a tall thick-chested man with chin length brown hair and a series of wires hanging from his shoulder.  Steve’s eyes widened.  

“Steve!  Natasha said you were awake.  Do you remember anything?  You don’t, do you...it’s okay, it’s okay.  We’ll find that bastard and we’ll beat your memories out of him-”

“Bucky!”  Another man followed Bucky, this one breathing hard and looking very annoyed.  “You can’t just tear away from my tools that way.  I could have damaged something important! Or even your shoulder.”

Steve felt a punch to his middle.  The other man had bright intelligent blue eyes, thick black hair and a neatly trimmed goatee.  He wore a button down white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms and his pants had tiny white pintstripes.  Steve could not figure out why this man should make his stomach twist pleasantly, but he did.

“Oh, you woke up,” the man said, switching his attention from scolding Bucky to staring avidly at Steve.  “You’re really handsome, aren’t you?  The eyes really add to the effect.  Not sure if long hair is the best look for you.  Have you ever considered a trim?”  
  
“He doesn’t remember anything, Tony,” Bucky said in an exasperated tone.  It sounded like they knew each other pretty well.  “How do you feel, Steve?  Do...do you remember anything?”

Steve hated disappointing this man.  Bucky’s eyes were so earnest, his expression so worried.  Obviously they had once shared a close relationship.  But Steve couldn’t lie.  “No.  I am sorry, but I cannot remember anything.  How do we know each other?”

Steve noticed Bucky’s remaining hand clenched into a fist, but he managed to keep any visible reaction off his face.  “We are brothers in arms.  Warbound as we call it in our culture.  It means we have pledged to be partners in battle.”

“Sounds pretty intimate,” Tony commented, crossing his arms over his chest.  “I would keep that information close to the vest.  It’s not proper here in this world.”

Bucky looked confused.  “What is not proper?  Battling?”

“No, homosexuality,” Tony said bluntly.  

Hmmm.  Perhaps that was the reason for Steve’s reaction upon seeing Tony’s face.  Now that he thought more closely on the emotion, he did realize it was connected to Tony’s appearance.  The man had a very appealing appearance.  He suddenly hoped he did not share that bond with Bucky.  He didn’t know if homosexuality was improper, but certainly having this feeling about Tony instead of his partner would be.  

Bucky snorted a laugh.  “I am not a homosexual, Tony.  That is not the nature of our bond,” he explained patiently.  “Warbound is deeper than simply sex.  It means we are pledged to always protect each other, no matter what.”

“Sex sounds more interesting, but whatever you like,” Tony said dismissively.  

“Why is homosexuality not proper here?” Bucky asked.  “It’s not as common in our world, but I shouldn’t see why sexual tastes have anything to do with being proper.”

“Don’t ask.  Has to do with an asshole interpretation of Doom’s laws.  Who isn’t a god, I might add,” Tony said, his tone angry and perhaps bitter.  “He’s a scientist of some kind.  His tech is advanced, but it _is_ tech.”

“I would think that is a dangerous thing to say too,” Bucky said, eyebrows lifted.  Steve wished he could follow the conversation.  Doom?  A god who wasn’t really a god?  What in hell was going on?

“Well, I’m fixing your arm, so if you rat me out to the Thors, I won’t,” Tony threatened.  Bucky held up his hand to stave off any further threats.

“I am not disagreeing with you.  I don’t believe Doom is truly a deity.  Not anymore.  Not after all I have seen,” Bucky said.  “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Hmmph,” Tony said.  His expression took on the appearance of a pout.  Steve had to bite his inner cheek to keep from laughing at him. “I would say the same, but you don’t have a secret.  Hey, that means all that staring at Nat _does_ mean something.  I’d tell you to watch yourself and all that, but she’s far more likely to beat you up than me.  Just be careful.”

Bucky’s cheeks turned light pink.  Interesting.  So this Natasha _did_ make Bucky feel like a husband should feel about his wife.  

“I’m sorry, Steve.  We’re being rude to you.  You must be really confused.”  Bucky dragged the chair Natasha had been using over from the window and sat beside the bed.  “This might take some time to explain.”

“As far as I know, I have plenty of time,” Steve commented.  

The soft snort Steve earned from Tony made him feel stupidly pleased.  

********

When Bucky introduced Steve to Devil, his two warbounds seemed to fall in love before his very eyes.  It warmed Bucky’s fearful heart.  Steve had always had a more profound bond with Devil than Bucky did with the dinosaur.  Oh Bucky and Devil loved each other very much, but there was just a special depth of feeling between Steve and Devil.

Devil didn’t love his small space, but he did appreciate that he could at least get fresh air out in the courtyard. After they were reintroduced, Steve and Devil sat curled up together in the cool air and didn’t speak.  Bucky assumed they were taking strength from each other.

He wished he could have that comfort.  When Steve looked at him, his eyes were so blank.  His expression looked kind and Doom help him, even guilty.  Clearly Steve wished he could remember, but he just didn’t.  Bucky kept remembering random memories from their childhood and training.  Silly little moments that meant nothing to anyone else and now meant nothing to Steve either.  

  
Bucky was left alone holding all their memories and it was a terribly lonely job.  

“Hey there, soldier.”

Bucky startled and turned to see Natasha watching him from further down the hall.  He turned away from Steve and Devil.  “Does Tony need me?”  

  
Tony Stark was every bit as brilliant as the angry woman at the Hammer booth had said, but he was also demanding and frenetic.  Ever since Bucky had arrived with that arm, Tony had been working feverishly on it.  He kept calling on Bucky for testing without much warning.  The previous night, he’d woken Bucky from a sound sleep in his guest room to come down and tell Tony if he felt anything Tony was doing to the wires he’d attached to Bucky’s arm.  

“No, I forced him to stop for lunch,” she said.  “Jarvis gets grumpy if his good cooking goes to waste.”  

Always an excuse for her affection.  Bucky wondered what had happened to her to make her so closed off.  “Tony works too hard,” Bucky said.

“Hmmm.”  She walked up beside him and paused, her gaze on Steve and Devil curled up, yellow and red folded up together.  “He’s taking this well.”

“Steve lost his memory, but his personality remains,” Bucky said.  He was aware of how fond he sounded.  “He’s always been calm in the face of danger.  It’s why he’s such a good warrior.”

She made a soft humming noise of agreement.  “What are you going to do?  After Tony fixes your arm.”

“Are you certain he can fix it?” Bucky asked, glancing at her.  Once again, he felt his heart flutter.  Curse Doom, if he were a god.  How could he meet her in such a circumstance?  “He told me he had never worked with this kind of technology before.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Natasha said with confidence that made Bucky smile.  He wondered if Tony knew what he had in his cousin.  “Tony’s smarter than you really understand.  The only thing that ever holds him back is lack of materials to make his ideas come into being and even then, it’s only a matter of time before he wills them into creation.  Did you know we’re the only building in Innovation that runs on electricity.  The others don’t trust it.”  Her tone turned disdainful.  “They just keep digging further into steam power while Tony harnesses actual lightning.  Idiots.”

This time Bucky didn’t bother hiding his smile.  Electricity was common in Brooklyn, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive that Tony harnessed it here.  “I did feel something on the last test,” he admitted.  “If he manages to get the arm attached...I don’t know.”  He glanced back to Steve, who was petting Devil’s face now and speaking quietly to him.  “I don’t think we can stay here.”

“No,” Natasha agreed.  “If nothing else, your dinosaur companion would not thrive hidden away.”

Bucky liked that she had given Devil that level of concern.  “Yes, he needs room to run and well...we are warriors.  The war has not yet touched your world.  I don’t know what we can do here.  But it’s not a good fit.”

“I know the feeling,” she said quietly.  At Bucky’s surprised glance, she waved a hand in the vague direction of the lab.  “Tony.  He’s too advanced for this world.  I know there are other worlds out there.  We hear the whispers.  The rumors and...and other events,” she said.  Curiosity tugged hard at Bucky, but he already knew Natasha well enough to understand she didn’t like being interrogated.  “And then you show up here confirming it.”

Bucky didn’t deny the truth.  He saw no point in hiding it when Nat did not seem the type to find the idea upsetting.  

“How did it happen?” she asked a moment later, her gaze fixed on Steve.  

“His memory loss?”  

She nodded.

“He was saving us,” Bucky said with a sigh.  It would be some time before he let go his regret over agreeing with the plan.  “The place we were before coming here was too dangerous, even for us.  We had to leave, but we didn’t have the magic to do it ourselves.”

“Oh, don’t let Tony hear you say the ‘m’ word,” Nat said with a soft laugh.  Bucky hadn’t yet heard the sound, but it instantly became one of his favorites he’d ever heard.  “He doesn’t believe in magic.  He only believes in science and _very_ advanced science.”

“Then this person we met must have been incredibly advanced,” Bucky said, his gaze turning to Steve as well.  “Loki he was called and-”

Nat suddenly turned to him, her eyes blazing with shock and anger.  Perhaps worse than anger.  Bucky felt his skin prickle.  He had confidence in his skills as a soldier, but if she were to come at him with that kind of emotion, he was not sure he would win the fight.

“Did you say ‘Loki’?” she all but snarled.

“Yes.  You...you’ve met him,” Bucky guessed.

To his surprise and pleasure, Nat reached out and grabbed his hand.  “Oh, I’ve met him,” she said, tugging him away down the hall.  “C’mon, we need to tell Tony.  He needs to know.”

They found him in the kitchen eating one of the crusted meat pies Jarvis had made.  Bucky had eaten one too and it was quite delicious.  It was nice eating real food again.  Nat sat down across him and eagerly told him what Bucky had said about Steve’s memory.

Tony didn’t seem nearly as impressed as Nat.  He sighed and set down his fork.

“Nat, this whole thing is a bad idea.”

Nat was equally unimpressed by Tony’s reticence.  “You’ve been working on it, haven’t you?  You promised, Tony.”

“Yes, I have, but-”

“This could be significant!  They’ve seen him.  Maybe they can help us find him,” Natasha explained, her voice alive with emotion.  Nat wasn’t the type of person to become overwrought or emotionally out of control, but whatever they were discussing drove her closer to it than Bucky had yet seen.  

Tony watched her a long silent moment and then he picked up his fork again.  “Fine,” he said, but he didn’t sound too happy.  “I’ll look at it again after lunch.”

“What’s going on?” Bucky asked.  Tony looked miserable, but Natasha looked smug and triumphant.  She stood up, her black skirts falling with a cascading whoosh to the floor again.  When she looked at him, Bucky saw profound determination in her eyes.  

“We’re going to find Loki.”

***********

Steve watched Tony flit around his lab.  It was the second evening since he’d woken up a blank slate.  He’d spent most of that day speaking quietly to the dinosaur.  Steve found it comforting telling his worries and confusion to a creature rather than a human that could respond in words.  Not that he didn’t enjoy speaking with his apparent friend, but Bucky looked at him with such a wounded expression, Steve could hardly face it.  Natasha didn’t seem to require much talk, but she had such a coldness about her that Steve found difficult to relax in her company.

Then there was Tony.  Steve had not spent much time with Tony yet.  The man had spent most of time since Steve had woken trying to find a way to reconnect Bucky’s arm to his body.  It was generous of him to try so hard.  Steve had the feeling that if he had his memories, he would be incredibly grateful Tony was helping Bucky.  

“What are you doing?” Steve finally asked.

“Getting this stupid machine out for testing.  My cousin thinks you might help us find the guy who took your memories,” Tony said distractedly.  He heaved a heavy machine onto the table.  Steve didn’t recognize it, but that wasn’t surprising.  

“What does it do?”

Tony glanced at where Steve’s gaze fell.  “That’s not it.  This is a calibration device I built to help build the machine.  That’s how it works most of the time with inventing.  It’s harder creating the machines that create your invention than actually creating the invention.”  
  


Steve frowned.  “I don’t understand and I’m not sure if it’s because my memories are gone or because I was never good with machines.”

“Probably both,” Tony said, though it sounded like /Pwababy boat/ because he had stuck a tool in his mouth while he rummaged in a box for more tools.  Steve waited patiently while Tony settled himself.  It wasn’t a hardship watching Tony.  His quicksilver personality showed in his frenetic movements.  The way his feet danced across the floor, barely touching down and how his hands seemed to constantly move over tools and through the air as he spoke.  

“Anyway,” Tony said once he had finally settled behind the machine, a pair of goggles now perched on his forehead.  “Natasha wants to find the guy who took your memory because she’s pissed at him.  He took something she seems to care about for some reason.  So I’m going to test you and see if I can glean anything from you.  I doubt it will matter.  I told her we need something from his world, but she’s determined.”

“You don’t care to find him?” Steve asked.  He stood up and walked to the table opposite Tony.  Laying under a kind of protruding arm of the calibration device Steve saw a much smaller device shaped as a metal cylinder.  It had a row of lights and a few buttons that meant nothing to him.  

“I think it’s asking for trouble.  Which normally I don’t mind, but not if it’s going to put her in danger for something that doesn’t matter that much,” Tony said.  

Since he was keeping his story vague, Steve didn’t ask for more information about what had happened between them and Loki.  

“Go ahead and sit.  I’m going to scan you,” Tony explained, picking up another device that was a simple black box with a glass face showing numbers and letters.  More things Steve didn’t understand.

“Your work is complicated,” Steve commented.

Tony snorted.  “And you’re the strong silent type, I’m guessing.”  He stood and walked around the table with the box device.  When Steve was sitting, Tony still only barely stood taller than him.  Tony wasn’t little for a man, but Steve knew he was unusually tall.  Tony stepped close enough that Steve smelled his scent, a spicy dark aroma that made Steve’s spine tingle pleasantly.  

“Guess you must be pretty lost here,” Tony said as he waved the box through the air in front of Steve, presumably doing his scans.

“I think I would be lost anywhere at this point,” Steve said.  He didn’t know why he said what he said next.  Perhaps because Tony stood so close and they were alone.  It gave him a sense of intimacy that made the confession easier.  “I look at Bucky and I know he sees a lifelong friend, but I see...just a man.  I feel bad.”

Tony made a soft tutting noise.  “That’s good though, right?”

“Good?  That I don’t recognize him?” Steve asked, his frown deepening.

“No, that you feel bad.  If you really didn’t know him, you wouldn’t give a shit if he was sad,” Tony said, gaze and focus on his scanning device.  “But you feel bad, so maybe deep down, you do care.”

Steve considered it and after a moment, he felt his heavy heart lighten a measure.  “Perhaps,” he mused.  

“Or you could just be a sap,” Tony added, but he was grinning at Steve.

“Hush,” Steve said.  “Just scan.”

Tony laughed, but he obeyed.

********

“This is a horrible idea.”

Bucky wasn’t paying much attention.  He moved his arm front to back and held it over his head.  It obeyed his every touch and Bucky could swear it responded to his command better than it did before.  He didn’t know how Tony had managed it without magic.  Or perhaps he was right and magic was only a science not many knew.

The cousins were quarreling about what Tony called a trans-dimensional travel device or TDTD for short.  Bucky hoped Tony quickly bowed to Natasha’s determination.  She clearly was going to win the argument, so it would be easier on them both if he gave in soon.  

  
“But it works?” she asked.

Steve watched them argue as though he were watching a ping-pong match back in Brooklyn.  Bucky thought Steve found Tony rather amusing.  His expression always turned to barely suppressed laughter when he switched from Nat to Tony.  Maybe they had bonded while Tony tested him and his TDTD for hours the night before.  

“Yes, it works.  Well, no it doesn’t work,” he countered himself.  “Not the way we need it to work.  It’ll take us from here to one of the other worlds, but it won’t take us to Loki because it doesn’t have a focusing point.  Like...okay, here.”  Tony dug into his pocket and drew out a piece of silver money.  “This money is from our world.  It was created here and it’s aligned with this location.  If I was to scan it with the device and then use the device, it would return us here,” he explained.  Bucky thought it sounded rather ingenious.  “We don’t have anything from Loki’s world.  Or from the world where he might be since he can hop with his own tech.  So I can’t take us there.  I can only use it without a focusing point, so we might end up anywhere.”

“Fine.  We have to try.  We can look for him,” Natasha insisted.  “Take our token,” she said, picking up the money.  “But we have to find him.  I can’t...Tony.  I can’t stand it.”  Her voice softened and Bucky abruptly felt like he was seeing a private moment.  Judging by how Steve had stopped watching them and turned to inspect a bit of machinery, he probably did too.  

“It’s not your fault,” Tony said, equally as soft.  “And I don’t want you to get hurt over this.”

“I won’t get hurt.  We’ll be ready this time and we’ll have the others.  Steve and Bucky are soldiers and Doc Green is so big and strong and Devil’s a damned dinosaur.  We can do this together,” she insisted.  The passion in her voice called to Bucky.  He would sign up for her army in an instant.  

Tony eventually sighed, but when Bucky looked at him, he saw the man nodding.  “Alright.  Fine, okay.”  

Nat leaned up to peck his cheek.  Bucky just barely heard her say thank you.  She turned to them and gave them a dazzling smile.  Or maybe only Bucky was dazzled by it.  

“Get packed, gentlemen.  We leave in the morning.”

*********

Bucky didn’t have much to pack.  The bag that had held his arm was used to pack his now clean kilt and sash as well as Steve’s war clothes.  They both wore new shirts and pants Tony had insisted on buying them before they left.  ‘You can’t go around in my ill-fitting pants,’ he’d said, but Bucky rather thought Tony enjoyed looking at Steve’s backside in those too tight pants.  

Devil had nothing to pack and Doc Green had refused to change his clothes.   Green seemed very pleased to get away from Tony and Nat’s world.  It did feel very isolated from other worlds.  No one knew of hulks or dinosaurs.  Green and Devil had been hidden for a few days.  It would feel good for them to escape.  

“Are you ready?”  

Steve sat on the bed Bucky had been given for their stay.  His eyes still looked slightly lost.  It hurt Bucky to see.  His best friend had always been so sure of his own mind.  

“Yes,” Steve agreed.  

Together, they went downstairs and out into the back courtyard where Jarvis was pushing a bag into Tony’s hands.  “For the trip,” he was saying, his tone worried.  “You don’t know when you’ll get to eat good food, sir.”

“Alright, yes,” Tony said, sounding exasperated.  “We’ll be back, Jarvis.  Don’t worry.”  Tony patted his front pocket.  “I have our ticket home right here.”  

“We’ll be safe,” Natasha promised him.  

  
Their butler did not look convinced.  Bucky walked to stand beside Natasha and she grabbed his sleeve.  “See, Jarvis?  We’re bringing muscle.”  

Jarvis made a snorting sound, but he didn’t complain anymore.  

“Everyone here?  Ready to go?” Tony asked.  His gaze was on Steve.  Bucky turned to consider his friend as Tony might, as an attractive person.  Steve’s hair was carefully combed and pulled back into a neat ponytail.  His button-down blue shirt picked up the color of his eyes and his tan pants hugged his thick legs.  Bucky supposed anyone who preferred male bodies would be very impressed with Steve.  The thought made him glance at Natasha, but she was busy fussing with her bag and wasn’t looking at either of them.

Everyone meant for the journey murmured their assent to travel.  Tony bounced on the balls of his feet and nodded.  “Excellent.  Okay for this to work properly, we all need to be touching.  So everyone, grab a part of each other.”  

Devil roared softly and laid down, leaning his head against Steve’s leg.  Doc reached up to lay a hand on one of the dinosaur’s haunches.  Bucky wanted to reach for Natasha’s hand, but she didn’t give him a chance.  Instead, she slid her arm around his waist and pulled him close, then reached out to touch Tony’s shoulder.  Bucky’s heartbeat sped up, making it sound as though his blood were galloping in his ears.  He expected Steve to take his other hand, but he realized he wasn’t quite surprised when Steve wrapped his fingers around Tony’s wrist.  

Tony made sure they were all connected and then he lifted the TDTD.  

“Here goes,” he muttered and then he pressed a button on it.

A sound like rushing wind filled Bucky’s ears.  He saw images flashing past his eyes like someone flipping the pages of a picture book, but oddly, didn’t feel anything.  It seemed like he was standing still and the world was rearranging itself around him.  The light and noise lasted only a brief moment and then everything was dark and quiet.  Night reigned where they landed.  Bucky had only a moment to decide they were in a forest when he found yet another gun in his face.  

The woman holding the gun wasn’t beautiful like Natasha.  She had a hardness in her face and eyes that seemed familiar to Bucky though and it made her appealing.  He guessed she had seen battles the same as he and Steve.  

“Who are you?” she snarled.  Her eyes flicked up to Devil, widening, but to her credit, Bucky didn’t see any fear enter them.  “ _What_ are you?”

No one had time to answer because just as the question left her mouth, Tony let out a short gasp, whispered “Rhodey” in a soft stunned voice and started stumbling past the woman to reach the man behind her that Bucky only now noticed.  The man looked just as shocked to see him.

“Tony?”

They threw their arms around each other and hugged like brothers meeting after a long absence.  Bucky glanced at Steve to see his friend frowning at the scene.  He bit his lip to keep from laughing.  Bucky had never seen Steve deal with romantic entanglements and the jealousies that came with them.  Perhaps not the best time for it, but he would enjoy watching it play out.

“Rhodes?” the woman asked uncertainly.  “You know these people?”

“Yes.  I mean, no, not the others, but I know him,” the man--Rhodes or Rhodey--said.  He clapped Tony on the chest, his grin broad and happy.  “This is Tony Carbonell.”

“What?  No, that’s not my name,” Tony said, still sounding excited.  “It’s Stark.”

Rhodey frowned.  “You changed it?”

“No, I’m not the same Tony!” he said cheerfully.  “It must be an alternate version of me that you know.  I’m from another world.”

Trust Tony to hug a man who didn’t even know him.  He was an odd one.  Natasha obviously thought so too because she made a soft snorting sound.    
  
“Tony, you can’t just hug people you don’t know.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s Rhodey!”  His expression flickered with a strong emotion Bucky didn’t recognize and then settled back into his excitement.  “Rhodey,” he repeated.

Nat’s expression softened.  “I know, Tony,” she said quietly.

“What the hell is going on here?” the woman snapped.  Definitely a soldier.  She was a woman used to having her orders obeyed and demands met without complaint.  “You.”  She gestured to Tony with her gun, but didn’t point it at him.  “You said other worlds.  Explain.”

She and Rhodey listened in growing awe as Tony babbled out a far too complicated explanation of their journey.  He didn’t seem to know or maybe care that not everyone was as smart or informed as him.  Still, the woman and Rhodey followed it enough to looked amazed and in the woman’s case, triumphant.

“I knew it,” she hissed.  “I knew they were hiding something from us.”

“I’m sorry,” Bucky said, stepping forward and interrupting Tony as he geared up for another long rant.  “I know there is much to discuss, but are we safe here?”

“Probably safer now that we’ve got a big fucking dinosaur,” the woman said, gaze flicking up to Devil again.  Devil made a soft growling sound.  He sounded amused by her.  Bucky reached up to scratch Devil’s side.  “But we were just going deeper into the forest.  We’re...trying to stay out of sight,” she said carefully.  

Bucky wondered if the people in these worlds did anything, but run from danger.  “Then I suggest we move along and find a safer camp.”

********

Steve didn’t understand why they didn’t just turn the device on again.  They obviously hadn’t found Loki here.  All they found was a woman named Carol and a man that Tony knew.  Or a version of a man Tony knew.  A man that Tony couldn’t stop touching and grinning at.  Since they’d found him, Tony had essentially ignored Steve and the others in his party.  

By the time they had set up a camp two miles further into the tangled gnarl of the jungle, Steve felt thoroughly grumpy.  They had not packed a tent or planned for staying outdoors, which Steve now saw was a mistake.  Perhaps if he had his memory, he would have planned better.  

Carol had a pack that included only a small two man tent, but she did have supplies to build a fire and Tony offered to share Jarvis’s food.  Steve scowled.  They might need that food later.

Devil seemed to sense his bad mood because when they all sat around the fire to eat and talk, he curled up behind Steve as a comforting seat.  Strange how Steve would find the massive red dinosaur the most soothing of his companions.  

“Alright, so tell us why you’re here,” Carol prompted.  

“We’re looking for a man called Loki,” Tony said, his lips briefly twisting with disgust.  “He thinks himself some kind of wizard.  We’ve both run into him.  That is, myself and my cousin as well as Bucky and Steve,” he clarified.  Steve felt Carol’s curious gaze on his face, but didn’t meet it.  He kept his focus on Tony.  “He likes making exchanges that don’t work out all that well for the people in question.”

“What exchange did you make?” Rhodey asked worriedly.

Tony waved his hand through the air as if to knock Rhodey’s question away.  “It doesn’t matter.  What matters is we need to find him.  I guess you haven’t heard of him?”

Rhodey shook his head, his expression regretful.  “No, I’m sorry.”  

Steve made an impatient noise.  Tony finally looked at him.  “What’s wrong?” he asked, seemingly surprised.  

“He isn’t here.  We should move on,” he said in a biting tone.  

Carol raised her eyebrows.  “Real cheerful fella you got there,” she said.  

Tony ignored her.  “I don’t want to jump willy-nilly through these worlds, Steve,” he explained.  “Now that we’ve tested it and it works, I think we should focus on how we can actually find him.  We need something of his to summon him,” he mused.

Steve’s scowl deepened.  “You just want to stay here because your friend is here,” he said in a mulish tone.  

Both Tony and Bucky looked surprised by his tone, but only Tony's surprise darkened into anger and a hint of hurt that made Steve's stomach twist unhappily.  No wonder Bucky had told Steve that he didn't have a mate.   Steve did not seem skilled at interpersonal relationships.

"Maybe I am," he said in an ice cold tone.  "Maybe I'm excited to see him because my own Rhodey died 5 years ago of a gunshot wound to the chest."

It seemed very quiet in the forest after Tony spoke.  Even the birds seemed to fall silent in the face of his palpable grief.  Steve's guts churned with uncomfortable guilt.  But he wouldn't apologize for what he had not known.

"You should have said," he said, his voice sounding rough even to his own ears.  

Tony's tension broke and he relaxed against the tee trunk.  "Yeah, maybe."  Steve raised his gaze from his hands.  Tony did not seem put off by his gruff manner.  "Sorry," Tony said to a still stunned Rhodey.  "I should have mentioned it, but I was just so excited to see you alive and well."

"Tony's lost so much already," Natasha spoke up.  Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried such strength that she didn't need to shout to be heard.  

Rhodey finally shook himself and some of his shock melted away.  "No, man, it's okay.  It's not something you just spring on someone anyway.  So yeah...damn, this is a strange feeling though.  Knowing you've died in another world."

"It's a strange feeling knowing you're gone still," Tony commented.  "Sometimes I still think, oh Rhodey would find this hilarious, I need to tell him and...well.  Your other self would tell me to stop moping."

Rhodey chuckled.  "Sounds like me."

Silence grew between them, yet it was not uncomfortable.  Everyone was simply lost in thought.  Steve wanted to ask if Tony had been in love with his Rhodey, but it hardly seemed appropriate.  Or relevant as this Rhodey looked at Carol with badly hidden affection.

"So how can we find this Loki character?" Rhodey finally asked.  "We might as well try if you're staying for a bit."

"We need something of his.  Something that belongs to him, especially if it came from his original world," Tony explained.  "It's how the machine focuses on where to send you.  By analysing and matching up the unique qualities of the object with the nature of the world or person it came from.  It's...more complicated than that, but essentially, that's how it works."

“Okay, well, we don’t know what he looks like,” Carol pointed out.  “So I’m not sure how much help we’ll be.”

"You've all met him, right?" Rhodey asked.  "How did that happen before?"

Steve glanced at Bucky since he couldn't remember.  He wouldn't be any use spotting Loki either since he had no memory of his face.

"We were staying with a man called Bruce," Bucky explained.  "In Greenland where Doc is from."  

"Where I was," Doc corrected.  "Not where I'm from."

That fact threw Bucky off course, but only for a few breaths.  "Well, at any rate, he had met Loki before when the man offered to correct a physical problem of his," he said vaguely.  Steve rubbed his forehead.  It was so frustrating to know you had only just experienced something or known someone and now you could not remember it.  

"Bruce had a stone Loki left with him that he used to summon him," Bucky finished.  "But he kept it there."

Tony's eyes lit up with the fire of discovery.  "See!  I told you.  It's not magic at all.  He's using the same technology as me!  Wait, do you have anything from Greenland that we could use to get back to Bruce?"

Doc and Bucky gave each other a look as they both reviewed their possessions in their heads.  "No," Bucky said finally.  "It's all things from our own worlds.  And...perhaps it's for the best.  That world is not safe for Steve."

"For me?  Why just me?" Steve piped up.

"Because you killed their leader, the Red Hulk, in order to save me," Bucky said proudly.  

Steve had killed someone?  That revelation sat awkwardly in his mind.  He didn't know anything about himself except he wasn't good with people and now that he'd killed someone.  So far, he wasn't shaping up to be a very good person.

"Okay, then let's not go there," Tony said, looking slightly ill.  "I don't like the idea of hundreds of hulks the size of Doc coming after Steve."

Frankly, neither did Steve.  

"How did you meet him?" Rhodey asked Tony.  "Did you have a stone?"

"No...I don't exactly remember all the details," Tony admitted.  His eyes took on a distant quality as if he were bringing up the memories.  His expression did not look happy at all.  "Something happened.  Something awful.  The worst thing that's ever happened to me really."

Steve burned with curiosity, but he wouldn't ask.  Tony probably wouldn't want to discuss it if it were that bad.  

"I was desperate to fix it.  That's what I remember most.   I'd have done anything to fix it.  Then Loki was suddenly there and he _did_ fix it," Tony explained, coming out of his memory trance.

"At great expense," spat Natasha.  

Tony glared at her, but didn't respond to her.  "So maybe desperation brings him?  But then why did your friend need a stone?"

They sat quietly thinking on it until finally Doc said, "Bruce didn't take Loki’s help.  He said Loki offered and he refused.  Then he got the stone in case he wanted to contact him again."

Steve didn't follow, but Tony obviously did because his eyes lit up.  "So we need someone to draw him out and then refuse the trade so we can have the stone."

"But how do we draw him out?" Bucky asked.  

"Desperation," Doc guessed.  "Bruce hated his problem.  I could practically feel it rolling off him in waves.  He might have thought he'd do anything to change it until he actually heard the price Loki had in mind.  One of us could draw him here by sending out a feeling of desperation and see what happens.”

The four humans in their party all exchanged glances.  Steve didn’t think he could dredge up the sense of desperation.  Perhaps he could have if he had his memories and could imagine losing loved ones.  Without any sense of attachment, he feared it wouldn’t seem realistic.  

“I could-” Bucky started off, but Rhodey interrupted him.

“I’ll do it.”  

Carol gave him a sharp look, but didn’t disagree with his declaration.  Steve got the impression they had only just met.  Their bodies didn’t move around each other like long time friends or lovers.  But there was no doubting the worry etched in her blue eyes.  

“Are you sure?” Tony asked, concerned.

“Yes.  He already knows you all by sight and...well, we’re on the run ourselves.  I keep thinking that Doom’s people are going to swoop down on us at any moment,” Rhodey explained.  Steve heard pain in his tone.  Whatever had happened to him, the memory was fresh.  Good, his hurting would make his act more convincing for Loki.  “I don’t think it’ll be that hard for me to pretend desperation.”

Tony rubbed at his lips, looking nervous.  “I’m not sure this-”

“Tony, he said he would.  He knows his own mind,” Natasha broke in.  “I can tell.  He’s very like our own Rhodes.”  For the first time Steve noticed that Natasha carried hurt at seeing Rhodey alive again.  Her grief hid much deeper than Tony’s.  

Tony and Natasha stared at each other for a long time, but eventually Tony nodded.  “I don’t think we have much choice.”  To his confusion, Steve saw Tony glance his way.  “We have to get Loki.  So...let’s do it.”

 

********

Bucky wasn't sure about this plan. He wasn't accustomed to trusting people he just met, but he was getting plenty of practice lately.  Natasha assured him that their Rhodey had been a good man with excellent understanding of people.  He'd have been able to handle this charade.  Bucky pointed out that Rhodey wasn't their Rhodey, but Natasha refused to believe they could be that different from world to world.  Bucky wasn't so certain people were reliably the same across the worlds.  He had not yet met a copy of a friend or acquaintance.  But he trusted Natasha's instincts.

And truth be told, he did not have much choice.  Bucky could not bear much more of Steve's blank looks.  He had not realized how much he depended on seeing Steve's thoughts written on his face.  They knew each other so well that Bucky only had to look at him to know what he was thinking or to share a silent joke.  Now he looked at him and saw only growing frustration and deep confusion.  It hurt Bucky deeply and if he had to trust a copy of a man he never met in order to recover his friend, he would gladly do so.

Carol fussed over Rhodey before they set the plan into motion.  Although her fussing was not obvious or very much like the women he'd known back home.  She gave him stern angry looks and demanded that he "keep his ass out of the fire because we have our own mission to complete."  Carol was determined to find Doom and confront him about his lies and his subjugation of worlds.

Doom.  He was really the heart of their problems, Bucky suspected.  Growing up, Bucky had always assumed Doom knew best, even though Bucky was not overly religious.  He didn't trust Doom necessarily, but Doom was all he knew.  Doom being god was simply how things worked.  No reason to question it, not when he had bigger problems closer to home.  

But Doom was a later and still distant problem.  Right now, Bucky had to focus on getting Steve's memories back.

"I don't like this," Doc whispered.  "We should've moved further away."

The hulk was crouched down behind a thick tree trunk along with Natasha while Tony, Steve and Bucky hid behind bushes.  Devil had gone deeper into the forest to hide his bulk and bright red scales, but Bucky knew he could be called quickly if needed.  They hid a few hundred feet from the campsite clearing where Rhodey and Carol sat around the dying fire.  Close enough to see and possibly hear, but not so close that they could immediately be sensed.

"We can't go any further or we can't see what's happening," Tony said stubbornly.  Stark was nearly around stubborn as Steve and that was saying something.  "If he needs help, we need to be nearby."

"Rhodes can handle himself without you," Doc growled.  He sounded so certain that Bucky gave him a sharp look.  Did he know a James Rhodes in his own world?  Bucky started to ask, but Tony hushed him with a whispered, "Look!"

Each member of their group fell silent and still as they watched a man in a long black cloak and lurid green pants appear out of thin air.  Rhodey hopped to his feet, feigning shock so believably that Bucky thought it must be partly real.  After all, one didn't see a being slip into reality from nothing very often.  

"My goodness, we are in a pickle," Loki said, his sharp cold eyes drifting over Rhodey and onto Carol. "I have to say, I'm surprised.  In all the worlds I've seen so far, I haven't gotten any hint of distress from one of you."

Bucky supposed he meant from a James Rhodes.  Not surprising.  Rhodey seemed like the type of man who took care of his problems without falling into despair.

"Who...who are you?" Rhodey demanded.

"I'm the one you're looking for," Loki responded.   "Oh, I'm not sure you knew you were looking for me, but I assure you, you were.  My name, if you must have it, is Loki."

"Well, what the fuck do you want," Carol snarled.  She too sounded so convincing that Bucky suspected her outrage was real.

"Just to offer you a bit of assistance.  You're...running from someone?" Loki guessed.  He sniffed the air as if he could scent the truth from it.  And maybe he could for all Bucky knew.  Loki sniffed again and anyone who wasn't trained in warfare might not have noticed it, but Bucky thought he spotted an incredibly brief hesitation in Loki before he spoke again.

Bucky glanced at Steve and was both surprised and delighted to see Steve giving him a significant look.  His warbound had obviously seen the hesitation too.

He turned back to the scene as Rhodey explained that he and Carol were being hunted by Carol's former military commander.  She was under orders to kill Carol and Rhodey said he'd do anything to keep her safe.  Bucky believed that last part.  Clearly they'd made an intense connection in the short time they'd known each other.

"I see.  And you're willing to give up anything for her?" Loki asked.  He started walking in an half circle in front of them, waving his hands in dramatic flourishes as he spoke.  "You just know she's the one and you just can't live without her?"

Rhodey shifted, his expression uneasy.  Loki’s overtly sarcastic tone worried Bucky too.

"Something's not right," he murmured.  

"I have just one question," Loki asked, drawing to a full stop right before them, his upper lip curled with cold fury.  "Did you really think this would work?"

Bucky swore as Loki produced a golden staff from thin air and blasted Rhodey back with a jet of red light.  Carol dropped into defensive position, but it was Tony that drew Loki’s attention.  

"Rhodey!"  Tony shouted and burst from his hiding place, running full tilt towards Loki.  Bucky stared briefly in surprise for a moment.  Talk about pure nerve.  Not to mention epic stupidity.  He stood up and let out Devil's calling cry.  

Loki seemed surprised by Tony's rash action, but not for long.  He turned and held out a hand.  A streak of green light flew at Tony and he was lifted off the ground into the air, cursing and struggling fiercely.  

"Doom-damnit," Bucky swore.  "Okay, we need-"

But he didn't have time to give his order. Steve exploded out from his hiding place.  Bucky's eyes widened.  He'd seen that look of pure rage on Steve's face before.  For whatever reason, he'd decided to adopt Tony into his circle of protection, the way he had Bucky and Devil all those years ago.  Loki was powerful, but perhaps not prepared for Steve Rogers at full terrifying anger.

And indeed, he did catch Loki off-guard.  His battle-cry stopped Loki with surprise long enough for Steve to crash into him.  Natasha sprinted out from her hiding place too and although her anger wasn't as frightening, her eyes were hard with hatred that shivered up Bucky's spine.  Natasha was a whole other kind of terror.  She reached Tony as he fell, her thick black skirts cushioning part of his fall.  Bucky ran into the fray as Devil crashed through the trees, roaring out his own rage.  

Tony popped up and helped Natasha stand, then as one the cousins turned on Loki, who was having a hard time shaking Steve off.  Bucky watched in pride as his warbound clawed at Loki's face, punched his chest and neck and kneed him in the groin.

"God, I hate fighting you," Loki bit off as he finally got a hand up to blast Steve away with his green light.  Steve fell back against a tree, but Loki wasn't free from attack.  Natasha slipped in and side kicked him off his feet.  Tony moved forward to do something, but that was when Loki had enough.

"Well, this is not anywhere near the fun I'd thought it'd be," he groaned and in the next instant he was gone.

"Fuck," Tony swore, his fingers grasping at nothing. "I was going to get something from him.  Damnit, now we're left with nothing."

"Not nothing," Steve rasped.  The blow had knocked the air from his lungs, but Bucky knew he'd recover soon.  

Steve held up a piece of dark cloth, his expression triumphant if not pleased.  "Serves him right for wearing such extravagant robes."

Tony looked so delighted, Bucky honestly thought he might kiss Steve.  Judging from the disappointed look Steve wore after Tony clapped him on the shoulder and then moved away to check on a still unconscious Rhodey, Steve had thought so too.

*************

 

Steve watched Tony calibrate the machine using the piece of cloth from Loki's robe.  Across from them, Carol heated sausages in a pan over the fire for dinner and cast worried looks at where Rhodey rested, his head bandaged from Loki's blow.  Bucky and Natasha sat on a log a few feet away from the fire quietly discussing fighting techniques.  She'd been incredibly deft and athletic during their fight with Loki, Steve had noticed.

"Are you sure that will work?" Steve asked.

"Sure I'm sure," Tony said with such confidence that Steve knew he really believed it.  "This will take us wherever Loki goes, I guarantee it."

Steve watched in silence for a few moments more.  Tony's fingers fluttered across the device, seemingly aimlessly.  They were mesmerizing to watch.  Steve wondered idly how they'd feel dancing across his skin instead of that machine.

"Alright, you've been staring at me for fifteen minutes," Tony finally said, looking up at Steve. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

Steve shook his head.  "I was thinking...you have very clever fingers."

Tony blinked, then lifted his eyebrow. "Is that a come on?  Is that your version of a flirt?"

Without even knowing himself that well, Steve still figured he probably wasn't very good at flirting.  

"I doubt it."  Steve drew his eyes from Tony's hands to his face.  "No, I was just thinking...you have such intelligence.  Obviously all your memories, a dear cousin, a handsome charming nature."  

That last choice earned Steve a quirked lip.  Tony's amusement had him warm down to his toes.  

"What's with the flattery, blondie?"

"I'm just wondering what Loki took from you," Steve said.

Tony's fond expression shut down completely.  His blank look disturbed Steve.  Was this how his friend Bucky had felt when he saw a lack of recognition in Steve's face?  He hoped not.  It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"It's not important," Tony said curtly.

"I cannot remember anything before three days ago," Steve said, his own tone mild.  Far from being annoyed with Tony, Steve felt as though he could be patient forever if that's how long it took for Tony to be comfortable with him.  "I consider that important.  I can't imagine what you lost wasn't also very significant."

"Well, imagine it.  And then drop it," Tony demanded, his focus back on his work.

Silence grew between them, but Steve didn't find it uncomfortable.  Tony fascinated him.  His insistence that he hadn't lost anything important told Steve that Tony didn't really have any hope of recovering it.  If Tony kept lying, maybe he'd eventually believe his own lie.  Yet he came along to help.  Steve admired his bravery.  Tony wasn't a soldier or an athlete.  He was a scientist who ran headlong into danger to defend his friends.

Tony was a hero, Steve decided.

"I won't drop it, but I will let it rest," Steve finally said.  "And if you want to pick it up again, I will listen."

Tony glanced up at him, but didn't respond on the subject.  He tinkered quietly for few more moments and then subtly gestured to Bucky and Natasha with his tool.  "What about those two, huh?  Getting awfully cozy."

Steve looked at them.  Natasha was turned fully to Bucky, who listened raptly to her story.  He caught a few words.  It sounded like she was telling a tale of catching Justin Hammer snooping around Tony's home and beating him up so badly that he was ashamed to admit a woman had done it.

"She's a warrior in disguise," Steve mused.  "A good match for Bucky, I think.  From what I have learned of him."

Tony scowled.  "Yeah, maybe if they weren't from totally different worlds?"

Steve turned his attention back to Tony.  "Do you want to return to your world after we recover what we lost?"  

The question obviously threw Tony off.  He opened his mouth and then shut it again, his eyes darting from side to side as he considered it.  The concept had obviously not been in his mind.  "I hadn't thought about it."

"There are other worlds.  Worlds far advanced from yours where your talent would really shine," Steve pointed out.  "You have the way of getting there.  It seems obvious to me."

Tony's gaze flicked over to where Bucky was teasing a softly laughing Natasha.  "Obvious," he repeated.

Steve started to ask Tony what he thought of the idea when he felt eyes on his body.  He looked around and saw that Doc Green had returned from walking to the creek for water.  His expression surprised Steve.  Before the hulk could catch himself, Steve saw miles of endless grief in Green's eyes.  They reminded Steve of an empty corridor.  

Then he caught Steve watching him and turned away to deliver the water to Carol.

Rhodey stirred at Green's heavy footfalls.  Tony was at his side in a flash.  "Hey!  How are you feeling?"

"Like I got my head pounded by a psycho wizard," Rhodey said, wincing in pain as he tried to sit up.  Carol reached his other side and helped him upright.  "Did we get anything?"

Tony held up the piece of cloth Steve had torn from Loki’s cloak.

“Got it right here.  Steve grabbed it,” he said proudly.  

Rhodey gave Steve a pleased grateful look and Steve felt guilty for having been jealous of him earlier.  “That’s awesome, man.  So you’ll be able to find him!”  His expression fell as soon as the words were out of his mouth.  “You’re gonna leave soon, huh?”

Tony nodded, but he grabbed Rhodey’s arm.  “We have to go, but...we can always return.  Give me a token and I’ll keep it safe.  I can use it to find you again after we settle with Loki.”

Rhodey patted down his pockets and then smiled when he apparently felt something in his right pants pocket.  He dug out something small and smooth.  “It’s a pocket knife,” he said, opening it to show a short blade.  

“Are you sure you won’t need it?” Tony asked as he took the now closed knife.  

“I’m sure I’d rather have you come back and tell me how it all plays out,” Rhodey said firmly.  “You’re not leaving right this second, are you?  You should take some time to rest.”

Tony hardly needed any convincing.  He bounded to Rhodey’s side and began talking about the fight as he inspected the bump on Rhodey’s head.  Steve turned and began to walk toward where he heard water.  If he was going to fight, he’d rather be clean.  

And...it didn’t feel like Tony would much miss his company.  
  


*****

They ended up sleeping one night in the forest while two of them kept watch at all times.  Bucky immediately volunteered to watch with Natasha, but Steve didn’t pipe up and so had his watch with Doc Green.  Just as well, Bucky thought the next morning as he ate some deliciously moist bread Jarvis had given them.  Tony watched with Rhodey and he deserved the chance for a last few hours with his best friend.  From the way they acted together, Bucky rather thought they’d be warbound if such a thing had existed in their worlds.  

Still, it did seem to shine a light on Steve’s loneliness.  His unnatural loneliness, Bucky corrected himself.  Steve never complained about loneliness.  Bucky knew he was content with his friendship and that of Devil’s.  But now that Steve didn’t know himself, Bucky thought he glimpsed hints of longing when Steve watch Rhodey and Tony or when Bucky felt eyes on his face when he was speaking with Nat and turned to look at Steve.  Only someone who knew him well would catch them and each one gutted Bucky.

“Are you feeling well this morning?” he asked Steve, who was braiding his long hair to get it out of his face.  

Steve seemed to really give the matter serious thought.  “I feel rested,” he finally responded.  “Eager to find Loki.”

Bucky reckoned that was the closest he’d come to hearing Steve say he wanted his memories back.  He nodded and stood up.  “Me too.”

Across the burnt out fire, Bucky saw Tony clap Rhodey on the shoulder and give Carol a winning smile as he said something that made her punch him in the stomach.  Though obviously not hard enough to injure him because Tony was laughing when he walked over to the group.  

“Are you okay?” Steve grunted, his eyes narrowed.

Tony waved away his concern.  “Yeah.  It wasn’t anything I didn’t deserve.  Nat, you ready?”

Natasha stood up from the log where she’d been sitting while she breakfasted and she nodded.  “Yes, let’s go quickly.  I’m tired of waiting.”

Bucky smiled.  He admired her drive.  In his head, he heard Steve’s voice saying something like, oh is ‘drive’ what they’re calling it now?  Bucky shook off his momentary melancholy.  They were looking for Loki precisely so he could get that old Steve back.  

“Alright then, Doc if you’re ready,” he said, nodding to the Hulk.  “Everyone gather in.”  They all formed a joined circle like before and Tony held up the device.  He clicked the button and the now familiar sensation of whirling through flashes of light exploded through Bucky’s senses.  Possibly it was Bucky’s imagination, but the whirling seemed to last much longer than the time before however and when the journey ended, it felt more painful.  Like being squished through a too small space.  Judging by the way his companions were rubbing their stomachs and arms, each with a variation of a grimace, Bucky wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Are you…”  Bucky’s voice trailed off as he really got a look at their surroundings.  They stood at the end of an immense shining bridge.  He’d never seen anything like it in his life.  The ground sparkled with every color imaginable.  It didn’t look completely solid.  Bucky could see the great depths below the bridge through the rainbow colored ground.  “What…?”

Before anyone could answer him, every head was snapped forward as something hurtled towards them through the air.  Steve gasped and moved to stand before Natasha and Tony, still so protective even without his memory.  However, the something didn’t attack or even touch them.  It landed five feet before them, giving Bucky the chance to finally see it was a large well-built man with long flowing blond hair.  He carried a massive metal hammer and stared at them with such a complicated expression that Bucky could hardly make it out.  There was anger and indignation, but also shocked awe and a tinge of such painful longing it gave Bucky’s own heart a jolt of pain.

“What are you?” the man demanded.  “How did you breach Asgard’s defenses?”

Asgard.  Bucky rolled the word around in his mind, but it didn’t produce any memories.  

“Um, that would be me,” Tony said from behind Steve, holding up his hand.  “I made a thing.”  He held up the device.  For some reason, this made the man’s lips tug as if he wanted to smile, though he did not.

“I cannot say I am surprised you are the reason.  But how...you’re dead,” the man said.  “You all are.  Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, James Barnes...I do not know you,” he said to Doc.  “Or your large scaly companion.  But the others.  I know of you and you are gone.”

“Oh, no, see.  Okay, we already had this problem,” Tony said, now walking around Steve’s bulk.  “My device enacts alternate dimension travel.  We’re not all from the same dimension.  Steve, Bucky and Devil, they’re from one.  Me and Nat are from another and Doc Green from yet another,” he explained.  “We’re looking for a wizard named Loki.”

The man’s expression abruptly changed from fascination to anger.  “Loki?  You seek Loki?  What has he done now?”

Bucky lifted an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with Natasha.  The man sounded exasperated.  As if Tony were discussing a naughty child rather than a fully grown wizard who’d already ruined several lives.  He saw Steve and Tony exchange a similar frown.  

It was Doc Green who answered him.

“He’s been making his way through all the Battleworlds preying on people in desperate situations by offering them exchanges.  I don’t think he even gains from it other than to torment people,” Doc explained.  

The man focused on the least interesting part of that statement as far as Bucky was concerned.  

“Battleworlds?” he asked.  “What are the battleworlds?  Are they on Midgard?”

They all exchanged another confused look.  

"I'm not familiar with Midgard," Doc said slowly.

"Earth then," the man said, waving away Doc's confusion.  

More confused looks.

"Earth?" Natasha ventured.  "Is that the name of a country?"

Now it was the man's turn to look confused and suspicious.  "Who are you?" he demanded again.  For some reason, he held up his hammer and pointed it at them like it was a magic wand.  "Show your true self," he bellowed, a hint of real power to his words.  Bucky felt the urge to comply even though he was himself.

Steve took command of the situation.  He stepped forward and glared the man down, his blue eyes fiery and intense.  "We are who you said.  I am Steve Rogers.  You have not said your name," he snarled.

To Bucky's surprise, Steve's angry yelling didn't arouse a similar reaction from the man.  Instead, he lowered his hammer and his eyes grew awed.  He peered at Steve as if trying to dig into his mind or his soul for the truth.  Bucky couldn't tell for sure because the man's eyes were so alien.  He'd never seen a man with eyes that color, like faintly blue ice.  

But then his face split in a wide grin and there was no mistaking his joy.

"But this is wonderful! Captain America has returned from the dead once more!” The man exclaimed in a jubilant tone that they had not yet heard, but which suited him very well.  Steve looked startled.

“Captain...Did you say America?” he asked.

The man shook his head.  “I know you are not the same as he, but your face and your manners...you are so similar.  And you to Iron Man,” he said to Tony.  “I have been rude for too long.  My name is Thor.  I am the lord of this realm, Asgard,” he said, holding out his arms to indicate the bridge, the great black tower it led to and frosty nothingness beyond.  

No one spoke for a brief moment and then Tony said, “All this...tower?”

Thor laughed and pointed his hammer behind them.  They all turned and gasped as one unit.  The bridge wasn’t leading to the tower.  It was leading away from the tower to a vast city the likes of which Bucky had never seen.  Hundreds of gleaming golden spires rose into the air, taller and grander than any building he’d ever seen.  They reminded Bucky of the large pipe organ he’d seen the few times he’d been in a Doom cathedral back home.  But so much more massive and intimidating.  Another section of building _floated_ in air above the rest and under it, rolling green lawns and sprawling gardens gave the city a touch of natural beauty.  Behind the city itself, Bucky saw two moons hanging low in a sky crowded with sparkling stars.

Tony whistled low.  “Never would have guessed Loki would come from this kind of place.”

Behind them, Thor made a quiet distressed sound.  

“The truth is more complicated than that.”  Bucky glanced over his shoulder in time to catch a flash of immeasurable sadness on Thor’s face.  More than sadness.  The man looked achingly lost.  Broken and heartworn.  But then he saw Bucky looking and guarded his expression once more.  “You should come with me and tell me exactly what Loki has done.”

*********

Steve could not help, but trust Thor.  When he looked into the man’s steady blue eyes, he felt the same certainty that he felt when he looked at Bucky.  Thor was a good man and a good leader if the respectful nods and happy smiles he received from the natives of Asgard as they walked by were any indication.  They did not seem unnerved by Devil.  Curious certainly, but not frightened and in many cases, even approving.  

Thor’s home seemed impossible.  Every surface appeared to glow with inner light.  Perhaps from a special kind of metal.  Steve did not know.  But the effect was mesmerizing.

Especially when he caught the glow glimmering in Tony’s blue eyes.  

Tony was nearly unhinged in his curiosity.  As they walked to Thor’s private quarters, he shot questions at him almost faster than Thor could answer.  What was the rainbow bridge made from?  How did his hammer allow Thor to fly?  How was the building floating above them?  The answers washed over Steve without penetrating much.  He was instead considering their problem.  If Loki did come from this place, perhaps all the residents had his magical powers.  Certainly Thor had some power.  He’d flown by way of hammer, after all.  Maybe Thor would consent to reverse their curses.  But would he help take down Loki?  And if he did, then what?  They would still be stuck in an unjust world ruled by a man who’d nearly gotten Bucky killed if Steve understood their story correctly.  Steve began to believe that telling Thor everything would be their best chance to earn his help and trust.

The doors of the Asgardian buildings were large enough to admit Devil.  Thor welcomed the dinosaur to sit curled up on what Steve thought was essentially Thor’s living room and gave him a large gold basin filled with water to drink from.  The others were given a pale gold liquid that tasted fresh and sweet.  

“Now,” Thor said as they’d settled onto fat cushy green chairs.  “Tell me your story.”

And so they did.  Well, Tony and Bucky did.  They were much better with words than Steve.  Natasha interjected a detail here and there.  As they spoke, Thor’s expression grew darker and stormier until he seemed to tremble with rage.  

“And this is what my brother has chosen to do with his time while I did nothing, but foolishly mourn,” Thor roared as he paced back and forth in front of the long sofa and fat green chairs where their group sat.  

“Loki is your brother?” Natasha spat, her eyes suddenly dark with hatred.

To his credit, Thor did not become defensive or even look surprised.  “Yes, but I assure you, his ways are as repugnant to me as they are to you.  I have spent many years trying to curb his trickery and make him see reason.  It...has never really worked,” Thor admitted with apparent difficulty.  

Doc Green surprised Steve by speaking up next.  His voice was quiet, his tone sounding almost pained.  “And what do you mourn for, Thunder-God?”

Thor’s gave him a sharp look.  Steve didn’t quite understand what was going on.  Thor had not referred to himself as a god, but he did not correct Doc and when he spoke, he looked more interested in Doc Green than he had before.  “That you do not know is surprising.  I had thought all the worlds of humans destroyed.  But you are all clearly human, even you with your gamma enhanced body.   Save your magnificent beast, of course,” he added, giving Devil a fond look.  

Devil roared softly.  Steve hid his smile.  Devil obviously liked Thor too.  Thor was decidedly a warrior and Devil responded to that odd combination of defensive and dangerous.  

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Tony piped up.  “Aren’t you human?”

Thor shook his head.  “I am Asgardian, as you humans always called us.  I am a god-”

“But Doom is the only god-” Natasha started, her expression a frown, but Thor’s astonishment at her words had them dying away.  

“Doom?” he asked, incredulous.  “Surely you do not mean Victor Von Doom.”

Bucky snorted a laugh.  Every eye in the room fell on him.  He shrugged.  “Sorry, it’s just funny thinking about god Doom having a first name.”

“You know Doom?” Tony asked, turning back to Thor.

Now it was Thor’s turn to laugh, though he sounded bitter.  “Oh yes, I have had dealings with the one called Doom.  He is _not_ a god.  He’s a dictator and a scientist.  A psychopath.”

“I knew it!” Tony crowed.  His jubilation made Steve grin.  He caught Bucky giving him a painfully fond look.  Steve wondered if his affection for Tony was showing on his face and if so, what it must make Bucky think.  

“I _knew_ Doom couldn’t be a god,” Tony was saying when Steve refocused his attention on him.  “I don’t think gods are real.  Well…” he amended when Thor gave him a raised eyebrow.  “I mean a god the way Doom presents himself.  All knowing, infallible, omniscient.”  

“No, we are not that,” Thor agreed.  The overwhelming sadness Steve had glimpsed out on the bridge returned for one breath and then disappeared again.  “But how did I know not of this Battleworld?” he mused, resuming his pacing.  It almost seemed like he was talking to himself.  

“We didn’t know about other worlds either,” Tony said.  “Obviously we suspected after meeting Loki and I used the theories I developed from the suspicion to build the device.  But it’s not like it’s known in every world.  We were in another world just earlier with some people who were being hunted for trying to figure out what was happening beyond their world.”

“Hunted?”  Thor paused in his pacing.  "Who was hunting them?"

Tony shrugged.  "Doom’s people, I assume.  He has agents everywhere.  His Thors..."  His voice trailed off as they all had the same thought. The Thor standing before them carried a hammer.  He flew as the Thors did.  His voice echoed with decisive command as the Thors.

"His what?" Thor asked, his voice soft and cautious as though teetering on the edge of a terrible rage.  

“His...Thors,” Tony said cautiously.  “His lawkeepers.  He calls them his Thors and...and they all carry hammers and they...they fly…”

His voice was lost in the crash of Thor’s angry roar.  He reminded Steve strongly of Devil in that moment and in fact, Devil gave an answering roar, responding to Thor’s anger.  If Steve and Bucky had not bonded him first, Steve rather thought Devil and Thor would make a good pair.

“He dares….”  Thor had been pacing, but he paused and then turned abruptly towards them.  

“Tell me everything,” he growled.

****  
  


**************

It had taken nearly two hours to discuss everything with Thor.  His anger did not calm, but it retreated enough for him to listen and ask questions.  The main problem as Thor saw it was figuring out how Loki had discovered the Battleworlds if Thor had not known of them.  Tony suggested that perhaps another person had created a similar technology to his TDTD, but it was a theory they'd have trouble testing.

“Right now, anyway,” Tony had clarified, his eyes glazed over in thought.  No doubt he'd have something created to search for such another device, but at the moment, they had nothing.

So Thor gave them all beautiful rooms to sleep in and announced they'd be hunting for Loki the next morning.

Bucky was relieved they weren't going immediately.  They all needed rest, real food and a warm bath.  He wanted to be fresher when they finally met with Loki, but he felt a lot more confident with Thor on their side.  

The bathroom of the suite Thor had given Bucky was officially the best part of Asgard.  He had a huge circular tub that filled up with piping hot water just the way he liked it.  Bucky hadn’t had a proper bath in ages.  The tubs back in Brooklyn would run out of hot water before Bucky could fill a tub half this size.  Asgard seemed to have an endless supply of hot water.  He soaked for over an hour, feeling each of his kinked up muscles relax finally.

After his bath, he dressed in loose comfortable Asgardian sleeping robes.  Bucky had taken his arm off for the bath and he left it off, not wanting to fool with it.  

The moons shone light through the wispy curtains, but Bucky wasn't tired.  He would rest, but first…

Bucky didn't even know he'd been seeking her until he found himself outside Natasha's assigned room.  He knocked softly and moment later, she answered.  Her long red hair flowed over her shoulders and for once she did not wear black.  Like him, she'd slipped into an Asgardian robe.  It was so loose that Bucky had a glimpse of the swell of her breasts.  His breath caught in his lungs.

“Nnngh,” was all Bucky could manage.

“Oh?” Natasha asked, her amusement subtle.  She stepped aside.  “Come in.”

Her room was the same shape and size as Bucky's, but he thought it smelled nicer.  Or maybe that was just her.  He sat in one of her fat cushy armchairs and she sat opposite him.

“You look very beautiful,” he said, seeing no reason to hide his admiration or his interest.  Back on Rhodey’s planet, Bucky thought she seemed interested too.  They'd spoken for hours that night.

So he was surprised when he caught a flash of guilt in her eyes.  “Thank you,” she said, but she did not sound very happy.

Bucky leaned back in his chair and contemplated her.  Obviously she was a beautiful woman.  She was also young and vibrant.  Her protectiveness and loyalty were admirable and while some weak men might balk at her strength, Bucky knew most would revere it.

So why was she not married?  Oh of course Natasha could have chosen to remain single and Bucky respected the choice.  But then why the guilt when he complimented her?  

His gaze fell on the black frock she’d tossed over a chair and it suddenly clicked.

“You’re in mourning,” he said, feeling foolish.  “I am sorry.  I didn’t...it didn’t strike me until just now.  I hope I haven’t been making you uncomfortable.”

She looked surprised by his apology.  Her gaze flicked to the dress too and then back to him and when she smiled, it felt more natural.  “You don’t have to apologize.  You haven’t been saying anything to me that I don’t enjoy hearing.”

“But it is too soon,” Bucky guessed.  Questions crowded his tongue.  Was it her husband?  A fiance?  Or only a new love not yet fully developed?  “You’ve lost someone.”

She looked away out the window onto the bright busy Asgardian city.  “In a manner of speaking,” she said.  Bucky frowned, but didn't say anything and Natasha continued.  “I can't give you what you want.  Not now.  Not yet.  Not until Tony has the same thing.”

Tony?  Bucky felt even more confused.  “I don't really understand.”

Natasha finally turned away from the window.  She gave him a sad smile.  “I know.  I'm sorry.  But...you don't have to go.  We can...talk?”

Relied touched Bucky's heart.  Natasha couldn't accept him, but she wasn't sending him away.  If she wanted to wait until Tony was married off, well...he just hoped Steve was doing his part to help Bucky's chances.

********

“Why are you sleeping out here?”

Steve looked up from the knife he'd been sharpening.  Tony stood at the edge of the willow where Steve had bedded down, a confused look on his face.

“I didn't want Devil to sleep alone,” Steve explained, gesturing to the dinosaur curled up under the tree as well already snoring away.  The steady grumbling breaths comforted Steve immensely.  He wondered if he'd been fond of the sound before his memory was stolen.  Perhaps it had left a deeper intrinsic memory that Loki could not take away.  Steve liked to think so.

“Oh.  Well, that's kind of you,” he said.  Tony seemed edgy, his always moving hands even more nervous and twitchy than usual.  Steve waited for a long moment for Tony to add anything else, but he didn’t.

“Thanks,” Steve finally said, growing confused.  “Did you need something?”

“Oh no, not...no, I was just sort of…”  Tony waved his hands through the air, but couldn’t seem to find his words.  Which Steve thought must be very unusual for Tony.  He usually had more than enough words to go around.  

“Well sit down,” Steve said as he set his knife aside and began punching his pillow into a nice shape.  “I don’t want to strain my neck to look up at you.”

To his surprise, Tony flopped down on the ground beside Steve and looked up at the stars peeking through the willow branches.  Steve tugged his blanket over his body and since he didn’t want Tony to freeze, threw it over him too.  When Tony scooted slightly closer to get more blanket, Steve bit back his smile.  

“Why did you come out here?” Steve asked quietly after they’d both been silent for nearly ten minutes.

“I don’t know,” Tony admitted.  “I was thinking about tomorrow and Loki and what might happen.”

“I think we can beat him with the help of Thor,” Steve said with confidence.  Without a person who had similar access to magic as Loki, it had been a harder task.  But Thor not only had his own kind of potent magic, but he knew Loki personally.  He’d grown up with him and that would give him an important edge.

“I know we’ll beat him,” Tony answered quickly.  The second half of his statement came much later and in a much softer tone, “That’s what I’m worried about.”

Steve digested this statement.  Their situations must be very different.  Steve wanted his memories back so badly.  He wanted to understand his position in the world again and he wanted to know what Bucky thought when he gave Steve those knowing looks for a brief second before Bucky remembered they didn't share a history anymore.

He wanted to be himself before he ever had anything with Tony.

“You've gotten familiar with your loss,” Steve guessed.

Tony abruptly turned on his side and looked at Steve, the moonlight caught in his dark blue eyes.  Steve thought he was going to say something, but then a second passed and suddenly Tony was kissing him.  Steve didn't move for a surprised moment and when he finally jumpstarted his limbs, Tony was already pulling away.

“Tony?” Steve whispered, confused and disappointed by the kiss’ abrupt end.  

“I...I'm sorry,” he said, his voice wrecked.  Steve caught a glimpse of guilt and grief in Tony's expression and then he was jumping to his feet.  Steve sat up too.

“Tony?” he said again.  “I don't understand.  What's wrong?  What did Loki take from you?”

Tony paused at the end of the tree's flowing branches, his back rigid, hands clenched at his side.  He looked over his shoulder at Steve.  

“I’m sorry,” he said again and then he was gone.

Steve stared at the space he left for a long time.

****  
  


******

Thor confirmed for them the following morning that Loki was not in Asgard.

"I would not be surprised if he came back here when you startled him with your attack," he said.  "Even after his years of rebellion, I believe Loki considers Asgard to be his home.  It would be his natural inclination to return here if he didn't have much time to plan his next destination."

"But he's not here anymore?" Natasha demanded.  She seemed even angrier than she had been.  Bucky wondered if their conversation had upset her even more than he realized.  Some time during the night she had gotten ahold a pair of skintight black pants and a black top.  It'd be easier to run and fight in than her black dress.  Not to mention it showed off her very shapely legs.

Right, best not get distracted right before a mission.

"No, I do not think he is," Thor said regretfully.  "But it should not be hard to find him."  He reached into a small bag tied at his waist and drew out a smooth green stone.  "Loki made this for me before he was banished.  We were still children.  He enchanted it to call him when I held it and thought of him."

"You're going to call him?" Bucky asked skeptically.  Loki didn't seem the type to answer a summons for a scolding from big brother.

"No," Doc said, his green eyes lit up with fascination.  The stone probably called out for scientific study.  Bucky glanced at Tony and found him similarly intrigued. "But I bet something he made will make Tony's machine work even better."

Thor nodded.  "That was my plan, yes."  He placed the stone in Tony's eager hands.  "I haven't used it in years.  I doubt he'd answer it, but perhaps we can make it work for me one last time."

"This is amazing," Tony said, eyes ablaze.  "I don't know if it works better with a handmade object, but I'm anxious to find out."

As he started fiddling with the device, Thor told them his plan for Loki.  He didn't have the same kind of magic as Loki, but he had something he called the power of Odin, whatever that was, and he had his incredible hammer.  He also had a pair of handcuffs that could cut off Loki's access to his magic.

"Good," Natasha said, a gleam of hatred in her beautiful eyes.  Somehow it made her seem even more appealing.  Dangerous and sexy.

It was possible Bucky had it very bad.

"I know that you're not the exact same men and women as my teammates," Thor was saying when Bucky tuned back into his speech.  "But I sense you are warriors nonetheless.  And well trained too," he added.  His eyes were alight with excitement.  More than excitement really.  He seemed almost frantic with energy.  Too eager to get going.  Bucky couldn't help wondering how long it had been since Thor had left Asgard in pursuit of adventure.  He hoped Thor's eagerness to dust off his armor and hammer wouldn't end up jeopardizing their mission.  Nothing was more important than retrieving Steve's memories and a close second was finding whatever Natasha and Tony had lost.

"Okay, I've got this thing locked on!" Tony announced, holding up his device.  "Are you guys ready?  Nat, are you good with your painted on pants?”

She scowled at her cousin and pulled at her waistband.  “I feel foolish in these things,” she grumbled.  

Her annoyed expression was apparently Tony’s goal because he grinned and started tapping on the device.  “Nonsense, they’re perfect on you.  Bucky obviously likes them.”

Bucky snapped his gaze up from her legs and glared at Tony.  She must have been glaring too because Tony laughed even harder.  “You two are the best.  Okay, everyone hold hands.  I’m ready to get us going again.”  

Steve wrapped his fingers around Tony’s wrist immediately, but he also reached for Bucky’s good arm, squeezing it tightly.  Bucky felt warmth gather in his belly at the look Steve gave him. It was almost reassuring, as if Steve were trying to make him feel better about the coming journey.  The look was so much like their old relationship that Bucky honestly did feel stronger as Tony pushed the button and he felt wind and noise take over his senses.

When they landed, Bucky felt disgust curl in his belly.  They stood in a small room filled with dead bodies resting under blue sheets.  Each sheet had been pulled back to expose a woman's face. He'd only just registered that each face looked the same when he heard Thor let out an anguished cry and charge toward a person Bucky had not noticed.

Loki.

Bucky crouched into a fighting pose, but Loki did not seem interested in fighting.  His expression was shocked, but Bucky didn't think it was due to the angry Thunder-God charging toward him.  His eyes were glued to the nearest woman.  She'd been lovely in life, Bucky noted.  Not a stunning beauty, but with sweet gentle features.

“Brother...I swear I didn't know!” Loki shouted when Thor reached him and lifted him clear off the ground by his collar.  “You must know I'd never-”

“There is nothing I know you wouldn't do,” Thor snarled.  “Tell me why this...why her?” he demanded.  

Bucky exchanged a worried look with Natasha.  Thor knew the dead woman...dead women, really.  They were all the same woman, Bucky realized.  Just as Rhodes had been another version of Tony's dear friend, these women were copies of the same woman from various battleworlds.  And they'd all been murdered, he guessed.  Some of them looked as though they'd suffered injuries before dying.  His disgust grew.

“I swear, I don't know,” Loki said.  His tone was so sincere, Bucky almost believed him.  But he'd seen enough of Loki's work to know never to trust him.

Thor lifted him further up the side of the wall.  “You're lying,” he growled.  

Bucky had to admit, despite the terrible scene, he was enjoying the real fear in Loki's eyes.  

“Not lying,” he struggled to say when Thor's hand closed over his throat and began to squeeze.  Bucky glanced at Natasha and grinned wickedly at the satisfaction he saw on her face. “I don't know who...but there's...can't...say…”

“Did someone tell you to stay quiet?” Thor demanded.

“No...can't breathe…”

Thor abruptly released his throat and Loki gasped for air.  “Odin’s beard,” he said raggedly.  “You need to work on that temper-”

“Loki,” Thor growled warningly.

“Fine,” Loki snapped.  “Let me down and I'll tell you.”  

Thor released Loki from his grip, but immediately snapped the handcuffs on him.  Smart move, Bucky thought.  Loki obviously agreed because he looked very put out.  “Is this necessary?”

“Yes.”  Thor held the hammer up against Loki's throat and said in a softly dangerous tone, “Now speak.”

Loki sighed in an annoyed sort of way, as if Thor were merely a nuisance rather than an angry god holding him hostage.  “Alright, alright.  She's the reason I discovered this playground.”

“The battleworlds?” Thor asked.

Bucky felt his blood run hot.  His playground, their lives.  What an asshole.  He hoped Thor bashed him on the head with that hammer after they were done with him.

“Yes.  After the incursions, nothing was fun on Midgard anymore.  Nothing was there and you were moping in your tower of grief-”

“I was not moping!” Thor protested, but Bucky privately thought Loki wasn't entirely wrong.  When they'd arrived on Asgard, Thor had seemed dimmer and sadder than he seemed now.  But then, if he'd really lost all his friends in these “incursions”, Bucky couldn't exactly blame him.

“Oh you were.  You've always been so fond of your little Avengers and look, here they all are again.  Well most of them. The main ones you seemed to really dote on,” he said, his gaze flickering to first Steve and then Tony. “How lucky for you.”

“Just get on with the story,” Thor snapped.

“I was bored!  I was going out of my mind and then like a beautiful whisper of hope, I heard her calling to me.”

“Jane called to you?” Thor asked.  He sounded gutted.  

“Oh no, not me specifically,” Loki clarified and Thor looked clearly relieved.  Bucky reckoned he'd seen that look on a man's face before.  Thor obviously loved this woman.  He tried to imagine coming across a room full of dead Natashas.  Even a brief moment of it gave Bucky a deep shudder of grief.  Thor was much stronger than he'd have been.  

“She's very clever, your Jane.  In all her forms,” Loki said admiringly.  “She knew there was something beyond this world and its petty god.  She sent a message out into the void and I was the one who received it.”

“But how?” Thor asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“How did they come to you?” Loki countered.  “That one made a device and-”

“Oh!  She's a scientist?” Tony suddenly interrupted.  Steve made a motion as if to hush him, but didn't finish it.  Still, Steve would probably rather Tony didn't bring Loki's attention to him.  “She made attention signalling device that went beyond the borders of Battleworlds?  That's so amazing; I'd love to talk to her-”

“Tony,” Thor said in a silencing tone.  Steve tugged Tony back a few steps, much to Tony's apparent annoyance, though he did stay quiet.  “When you came to her, what happened?” he asked Loki.

“Not much.  She asked me to help her defeat Doom.  I saw no reason to break up the party, but I offered to make another deal with her.  She refused.  I rather think she didn't trust me,” he mused.

Thor's grin was proud.  “Of course she didn't.  The Jane I knew was too smart for your nonsense.  I assume her counterpart is as well.”

“Yes, well.”  Loki shrugged, but Bucky thought he looked rather affronted.  “At any rate, I left her there and came out here to explore. That's all I know.  Well…”

Loki looked as if he'd remembered something.  Thor closed in another, an aura of anger practically glowing around him.  Sooner or later, the dam holding back his rage would burst and Bucky only hoped he had something to hide behind when it did.  

“What?” Thor demanded.

“I told Doom,” Loki realized.  “I had to see this petty god for myself.  He was terrified of me, of course.  His power is a shadow compared to yours and mine.  He asked me how I had found him and I said he didn't even know his own people.  That he didn't know he had a clever little scientist sending out distress calls.  I didn't say her name, but if he found out…”

Thor and Loki both looked at the dead bodies as they both made the connection.  Bucky heard Natasha gasp as she too figured it out.  His own stomach dropped.

Doom was killing all the Janes until he silenced the correct one.

“Holy fuck, he's even worse than I thought,” Tony murmured.  

Thor's hands trembled at his side and when he gave his order, Loki didn't hesitate to obey.

“Take me to her.”

********

Steve wished Thor had taken the time to get his memories back before ordering Loki to take them to this Jane woman.  But Thor's demeanor had changed the second he saw those bodies and once Steve understood, he did not blame Thor.  Seeing death was not pleasant in its own right, but seeing a loved one dead over and over...he was right to be angry.

Steve simply wished he felt steadier in this dangerous environment.  If he could call on his training and his memories of the world, the lessons he must have learned about how people acted, he would be better prepared to travel on this path that was inexorably drawing them towards a battle with Doom.

Thor allowed Loki one hand free to magic them to the living Jane's home.  Steve didn't care for travel by magic.  The wind and noise of Tony's machine seemed pleasant compared to the uncomfortable squished sensation of squeezing through space via magic.  Steve actually reached up to touch his nose when they landed, certain it had been broken.  

“Holy shit!” Steve looked up to see a petite woman who looked familiar.  It took him a second or two to realize it was a living version of all those dead women they had seen.  Beside her was another woman, this one taller and more buxom and she was the one who'd cursed.

“You,” Jane said, eyes narrowed on Loki.  

But she only got as far as brandishing some sort of tool at him before Thor spoke.  

“Jane.”  His voice sounded devastated and hopeful all at once.  “It's really you.”

Jane stopped short of banging Loki on the head with her tool, which Steve found somewhat disappointing.  She looked confused by Thor's familiar tone.  Then her gaze began to trail over the rest of their ragtag band, widening slightly when she spotted Doc and then even more when she saw Devil.  

“Um….”

“Okay, that is awesome,” said the other woman.  “That's a fucking dinosaur.”

“Darcy,” Jane chided.  She turned back to Thor.  Her expression changed from confused and possibly scared to a painful kind of hope.  “You...did you get my message?”

“Not exactly.  I was tracking Loki to try and fix his mistakes-” Here Loki earned a glare from Thor.  “-and he told me of the message.  It's incredible that you managed to find a way to send it.”

“I'll say.  How did you do it?” Tony asked, pushing forward, eyes blazing and hands clutching his TDTD.  “I have a way to travel around inside the battleworlds, but I didn't even know there was an outside until my device had a piece of material from it.”

Jane's eyes lit up with the exact same kind of scientific fervor.  “You have a travel device?” she squeaked and then they were lost to a babble that made no sense to Steve.  But he liked how happy they sounded.  Thor glanced at him to exchange a look of fond exasperation, but he paused as he seemed to make some kind of mental connection.

“Odin’s beard, I'm sorry, Steven! Loki!  You have stolen this man's memories and I insist you put them back,” he demanded, pointing his hammer at Loki.  

Loki huffed a sigh of annoyance.  “I can hardly fix him in this state,” he said as he lifted his cuffed hands.  Thor gave him a suspicious look, but reached over to release one hand.  “Really, Thor…”

“Do it,” Thor demanded.

Loki sighed again and flicked a hand at Steve as dismissively as if he were waving away a pesky fly.  

Steve's entire life slammed into his brain so hard that he stumbled backward.  He saw a hundred images fly past his mind’s eye.  His mother's sweet smile.  The little coffee house he used to visit before joining the army.  Bucky's laugh as they played in the streets of Brooklyn.

_Bucky_.

Steve looked up with watering eyes to see Bucky staring intently at him.  Bucky.  His warbound, his best friend and only remaining family from Brooklyn.  How could he have forgotten him?  And Devil?  Steve looked at his beloved dinosaur friend and felt guilt swirl in his chest.  He'd forgotten them.

“It's not your fault, Steve,” Bucky said.  Steve huffed a laugh.  He'd always known him so well.  “You were saving us.”

Bucky was suddenly in front of him and they were embracing.  Over his shoulder, Steve saw Natasha covering her mouth as though she were trying to hold in tears.  And Tony...Tony was watching them with such aching envy that it gutted Steve to his core.

Tony.  Now that Steve knew himself again, he remembered coming into puberty knowing he liked boys instead of girls.  He remembered feeling relieved to join the army because then no one would expect him to marry.  Homosexuality wasn't illegal in Brooklyn like in Tony's world, but Steve could never marry.  It had been easier to let those feelings go and enjoy the occasional tryst with like minded soldiers.

But now...he squeezed Bucky and then released him, his focus on Tony.  “Now give Tony back whatever you took from him.”

“As touching as all this is, I don't take orders from you-”

Electricity seemed to crackle around Thor.  “Loki,” he said warningly.  “Do it.”

“I can't do it with only one hand free,” Loki insisted.  “What I did to him is far more complicated than what I did to Spangles,” he hissed.  Loki must be remembering the man Thor had known.  Steve made a mental note to later ask Thor about him.  

“Don't trust him,” Tony piped up.  He sounded scared, but brave and Steve felt his heart swell.  Now that he had his own mind back, Steve could properly understand his feelings for Tony.  He remembered that he'd never before felt this odd exciting combination of lust and affection when he looked at someone.  

“I don't trust him, but you need him to unmake your deal,” Thor said, frowning.  He had not been with them long enough to have seen how Tony shied away from talking about his deal or how he'd never seemed eager to have it fixed.  Even now, he looked utterly terrified.

“No, just...let's just figure out what Jane-”

“No!”  Natasha’s voice punched the air around them, startling Devil into whining softly like a puppy.  Her eyes blazed with fury.  “Not after all of this.  You must take it back.”

Thor lifted his hammer again, the threat clear.  “Unmake the deal, Loki.  If you try anything…”

Loki rolled his eyes.  “Yes, yes, you'll flay me alive, etcetera.  Get on with it.”

Tony made a soft distressed noise as Thor removed the second cuff.  Loki rubbed his wrist and walked toward Tony.  No one seemed to move or even breathe save Loki.  The wizard prowled around Tony in a way that made Steve's skin crawl. He wanted to jump forward and push him away, but he also didn't want to provoke him.  

“I know what you fear, Tony Stark,” Loki said.  A green glow began to develop in his left hand.  “You think that I didn't take anything, yes? Your dear cousin wearing mourning black for no reason because Tony Stark never really had a heart.”

His heart?  Loki had taken Tony's heart?  Sick anger swooped through Steve's belly.  Loki was a monster.

“Finish it, Loki,” Thor commanded.  

Steve sensed Bucky and Doc both tensing up.  Nothing felt right.  Loki's expression had lost the slight edge of guilt it had shown when they'd found the dead Janes.  He looked as twisted and amused as he had when Bruce had summoned him.  

“You were right to be afraid,” Loki snarled and Tony flinched.  “I haven't done anything to you, Stark.  Your heart is as cold as stone. Or perhaps I should say Iron?”

Everything seemed to happen at once.  Tony spun around to stare at Loki in shock while Natasha charged forward, growling deep in her throat.  Thor lifted his hammer to strike, but Loki was too quick.  A blast of green light nearly blinded Steve and in his confusion, he reached out to find Bucky.  Behind him, he heard Devil howling with rage and Doc cursing.

It wasn't until Jane shrieked that Steve realized things had really gone to shit.

When his vision cleared, Steve saw that Loki had gone and in his place stood a figure Steve remembered all too well.

It was Doom.

******

Bucky really fucking hated Loki.  Sure they'd gotten Steve's memories back, but then he'd gone and fucked with Tony's mind and just before fucking off, he'd summoned their fucking god to challenge them.  

After this was over, presuming he wasn't dead, Bucky was going to need a drink and a good fuck.

But first he had to survive.

Doom looked as shocked as they did to see him.  Maybe Loki just dragged him forward through space.  Bucky got the impression that their god’s power wasn't near as strong as the two gods from outside Battleworld.  Which made sense considering how badly Doom had not wanted them to know of Battleworld.

“You,” Doom snarled, his gaze on Jane.  She impressed the hell out of Bucky by lifting her chin defiantly.

“Me, yes.  I've been studying your ‘magic’ for years.  The energy you use...it's nothing more than natural energy created by this world!”  Her voice shook, but she kept talking and Bucky thought she was magnificent.  No wonder Thor liked her so much.  And why Doom feared her so much.

“You're not a god!  You're just a very smart and conniving scientist!  You-”

Doom raised a hand to summon a ball of light in his hand.  It seemed like everyone acted at once.  Bucky did not want to see what that light would do if it struck Jane.  Thor reached him first, of course, fueled by his rage and protectiveness over Jane and bashed the light away with his hammer.  It hit the wall with a deafening blast, breaking a great deal of crystal vials and metal equipment.  Jane cried out in shock, somehow appalled by her loss of equipment even as god Doom threatened her life.

“I can't believe you just did that!” she said, eyes wide.

“Um, maybe not right now?” Darcy whispered.

Doom looked furious.  “You dare come to _my_ world, my creation-!”

Tony had recovered from his ugly encounter with Loki enough to snort.  “You didn't create this world.  It was those...what did you call them...incursions?”

Thor nodded, but kept his gaze on Doom. “You've taken advantage of this creation, but it is not your doing.  And you've squandered what you have here.  You've tortured your people and made them live in fear.  I cannot allow you to continue ruling this world.”

“You won't have the choice,” Doom growled.  “Thors….!”

A split second of silence and then suddenly the room was full to bursting.  Warriors of every type and size, every power, every strength.  Bucky drew out his sword and smiled at Steve.  

“Time to battle, my friend!”

And battle they did.  Bucky saw Tony dive behind a desk with Jane and Darcy, he thought simply to get out of the way until a moment later when he saw a lit bottle fly over the edge and explode fire into the face of a short red-haired Thor.  Bucky was relieved Steve had his memories back for the fight.  He swung his shield with the same precision Bucky remembered, knocking out Thors or pushing them into the force of the real Thor's hammer.  Behind them Devil roared and snapped his jaws around the enemy, breaking their legs or even their necks.  Doc fought just as hard too, though with less finesse.  Still, what he lacked in skill, he made up for in sheer strength.  Natasha too fought well, but more subtly.  A flash of blade here, a well aimed kick there and she too worked through her share of Thors.

The real Thor went after Doom.  God or no, Doom’s power overwhelmed the others in the room.  But Thor could call lightning and swing an impossible hammer.  Eventually the fight would be his victory, but how long could they last?

Thor after Thor creature came after them.  A woman who could conjure rain and wind.  A great rambling tree with enormous strength.  A man with a seemingly endless supply of metal arrows.  

They needed to kill the leader, Bucky thought as he pushed off an Elvish looking Thor.  Without Doom wielding the battleworld powers, it might slow the Thors.  Or at least confuse them enough to ease the battle.  

“Steve!”  Bucky caught Steve's eye and jerked his head toward Doom.  The god-man was throwing more strikes at their Thor.  They needed to help distract him so Thor would land a killing blow instead of focusing all his attention on staving off the constant blows.  

Steve got the message quick.  He bashed the side of his shield against his current Thor's face and pushed him into Devil's way.  The dinosaur happily took up the fight with that particular Thor.  Steve ran nimbly through the fight with Bucky on his heels.

“Thor,” Steve growled.  He stepped up beside Thor and used his shield to deflect away a burst of energy.  Doom looked livid.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he snarled.  

“Yes,” Steve agreed.

He waited until Bucky had reached his side to slowly begin working his way to the left of Thor.  Bucky understood immediately.  They needed to surround Doom to confuse him or at least make things harder on him and see if it gave Thor an opening to land a strike.  

Bucky should have known it wouldn't work perfectly.   Steve had only gotten halfway around to Doom’s other side when a tall whipcord thin man he hadn't yet seen appeared behind Steve.  He lifted a hand and Steve began to rise off the ground.  His warbound struggled and dropped the shield as if it were burning him.  Doom looked incredibly pleased.

“Thank you, Strange,” he said, eyes gleaming behind that horrible metal mask.  “Now we end this.”

He lifted his hand to strike.  Bucky's heart leaped into his throat.  He tensed to jump, ready to die if it meant he could knock Doom’s killing blow off course.

But he didn't have the chance.

“ ** _No_**!”

The word ripped through the air a split second before a strange light exploded from one side of the room and hit Doom in his back.  Bucky snapped his gaze over to see Tony standing upright again, his chest aglow with the power of that light.  It poured out from his chest and heated the air around them.  Doom gasped and fell to his knees.  The man Strange tried to counteract the...magic?  Science?  Bucky had no idea, but it didn't work.  The light burned through Doom like a fire.  His screamed cut down to Bucky’s very soul, but it only lasted a moment before he collapsed on the ground, clearly dead.

The light faded from Tony's chest and he staggered.  “Oh,” he said faintly and then he sat down.  Steve had fallen down when Tony's light started, but he wasn't hurt.  He and Natasha ran to Tony's side.

Thor brought a bolt of lightning down to wrap around Strange’s middle, holding his arms in place.  Bucky wasn't sure it was necessary.  Strange looked blank and unseeing at Doom's corpse.

The Thors in the room didn't seem to know what to do either.  They watched each other uncertainly, clearly troubled by seeing that their god could be killed.

“Go,” Thor said to them.  His power gathered around him like a cloak.  It even seemed...brighter somehow?  Bucky couldn't say, but something was different.  “Go to Doom’s castle and await me.”

Bucky wasn't all that surprised when the Thors moved to obey him.  Thor seemed to be the only person who wasn't totally lost.  “You there.”  Thor pointed to a Thor who favored him immensely.  “Take this one and put him in whatever Doom had for a prison,” he said, meaning Strange.  

For some reason, Thor now trusted these people.  The Thor seemed to trust him back because he carefully took control of the prisoner and soon they were all gone.

“What happened to him?” Natasha demanded.  She was stroking Tony's hair from his face while Steve held him from behind, helping him sit up.

Thor crouched at their side.

“I think my brother was half right.  He didn't take your heart.  He may have bound it though.”  Thor eyed the scorch mark on Tony's clothing in the shape or a perfect circle.  “You broke through the binding, it seems.  Whatever feelings you have for Steve, they are as strong as I always remembered.”

Tony sounded ragged when he spoke.  “Oh god, are you saying I killed Doom with the power of love?  That's so embarrassing.”

Thor chuckled and Natasha apparently had to sit down too as she rubbed her forehead.

“Only you, Tony,” she said tiredly.  “Only you.”

******

Natasha refused to move from Tony’s side until she was absolutely certain the heart light hadn’t done any real damage to him.

“I told you, I’m fine,” Tony said for the fourteenth time, sounding more exasperated than amused the way he had the first ten times.  Natasha poked at his smooth chest again, earning herself a light smack.  “Natasha.”  This time Tony’s voice was serious, even understanding.  “I’m really okay.”

Steve politely looked away when Natasha flung her arms around Tony and hugged him for a long moment.  She stood up, touching Tony’s shoulder as she went away to check on the others.  Steve watched Bucky light up when she joined his conversation with Doc.  With his memories in place, he knew now exactly how good they’d be for each other.  Steve was happy for his warbound.

“So...that was weird,” Tony said, a touch awkwardly.  

Steve returned his attention to Tony.  His hair stood up in all directions and his face was sooty and sweaty from the battle.  Steve thought he still looked lovely.  

“Yes.”  There was a short pause and then Steve chanced reaching out to touch Tony’s hand.  “I think I understand things better now.”

Tony stared at their hands.  A touch of the fear he’d seen that night on Asgard returned to his brown eyes, but only for a moment.  When Steve gently took Tony’s hand and squeezed it, a soft kind of pleasure washed it away.  

“I thought…”  Tony shook his head, apparently unable to vocalize what he thought.  “I’ve never been that good with that stuff.  It wasn’t just my heart.  Not just regular feelings.  But...y’know…”  He looked pained to say it.  “Romantic stuff.  Even before Loki, I never thought I’d be able to...I thought...I guess I thought I was broken.”

“I think that’s what Loki would have wanted,” Steve said.  He liked Tony’s hands.  They were rough from work.  “Why did you let him?  What did you get from it?”

Tony glanced over at Natasha.  “My cousin.  She was dying.  Fell and broke her ribs.  I think it punctured her heart.  I couldn’t help her.  I tried…”  His voice filled with anger and regret.  “I could build a fucking machine to cross through dimensions, but I couldn’t fix her.  She was going to die.”

Steve glanced at them too, but his attention caught on the way Doc stared at their joined hands.  He seemed to feel Steve’s eyes on him because he abruptly turned and stalked off to apparently check on Devil.  

“So you exchanged your heart for hers,” Steve said, putting away thoughts of Doc and looking back at Tony with fondness in his eyes.  “That’s a brave choice.”

Tony looked startled by the compliment.  “It was a desperate one.”

“”Who says it couldn’t be both?” Steve countered.   

Tony shrugged but he looked pleased.  “Well.  Anyway.  I guess I’m not broken after all.”

“No,” Steve agreed.  “I think you’re working very well.”

There was a pause and then Tony asked, “Is that romantic?   Was that supposed to be romance?”

“Would it help if I also kissed you?”  Steve asked teasingly.  

“Well.  I guess we’ll have to find out,” Tony said and though he sounded haughty, he was the first to lean over and press his mouth to Steve’s.

It was the best kiss Steve could remember.  

********

Damn, Steve worked fast, Bucky thought as he watched his boy kissing Tony.  He wondered how he’d missed Steve’s interest in men.  Perhaps he’d just buried that part of himself so deeply even Bucky couldn’t see it.

“Finally,” Natasha murmured.  They were alone together now that Doc had stormed off to talk to Devil.  Thor was gone too for the moment to settle the Thors crew and start figuring out what to do about Battleworlds.  Bucky had no idea what to think about what had happened.  They’d killed a _god_.  Their only god and the being so many across Battleworlds worshipped or at least feared.  The repercussions of what they did would be rippling through their reality for months and maybe even years to come.

“Finally what part?  No Doom?  Tony’s heart back?  There’s a lot of shit that’s gone down,” Bucky said.  His own voice sounded slightly hysterical in his ears.  

“No, Tony’s kissing, so now I can too,” she announced before dragging Bucky’s head down and kissing the living daylights out of him.  Somewhere in the distance he heard that Darcy girl making a whooping sound.  Bucky felt like whooping himself.  Natasha’s soft curves felt so good pressed against his body and good lord, did she ever know how to kiss.  Unlike her subtle and dangerous fighting style, Natasha kissed with aggression that sent shockwaves of lust through Bucky’s body.  She was dominant as hell and he _loved_ it.

When she pulled away, Bucky knew he must look insane with flushed cheeks and wide eyes.  

“So that’s...that’s what you were waiting on, huh?”

She grinned.  “Yes.”  
  


“And there’s more where that came from?” Bucky asked hopefully.

Her smile softened and she reached up to cup his cheeks.  The sweet touch of affection in her beautiful eyes enticed Bucky even more than her demanding kiss.  

“Yes, much more.  If...you want that?”

“Are you kidding me?” Bucky squeaked.  “Yes!  Yes, always.”

“Well.”  Natasha curled her arm around Bucky’s and leaned her cheek against his shoulder.  “I guess I’ll keep you then.”

Bucky couldn’t think of anything that had ever sounded better to him.  

************

Thor looked around Jane’s ruined laboratory,  Steve might have expected fatigue or disappointment at the mess, but instead Thor seemed energized.  His sense of purpose had returned fully.  Far from being the lonely mourning man they’d found on Asgard, Thor now strode through the rubble with an air of command Steve would have instantly respected if they’d met as fellow soldiers.  Now he respected it, but also admired it as a new follower.  If Thor ruled his new worlds with even a fraction more humility and kindness than Doom, then he earned Steve’s fealty.

“What are you going to do now?” Bucky asked.  Steve noticed he was holding Natasha’s hand tightly.  

“It’s time to rebuild,” Thor announced.  “I’ll return to Asgard and recruit those I trust to help me.  There’s no need for one god when the Battleworlds can enjoy a Pantheon.”  Thor paused, his nose wrinkling with disgust.  “Nay, not the Battleworlds.  That name does not suit this land any longer.”

“Oh, how about Starklandia,” Tony suggested.

Thor shook his head, fond amusement sketched along his expression.  Steve suspected Thor missed his own Tony most of all.  “We called the world before Midgard.  Perhaps this new land can be Nyrmidgard,” he mused.  “New Midgard in your tongue.”

“Oh I get it,” Tony said, shaking his head.  “You slap ‘new’ in front of something, but I’m the one that’s bad at coming up with names.”  

“Does your tongue ever stop working?” Steve asked.

“Wouldn’t you be upset if it did, blondie,” Tony said, winking at him.  

Steve really wasn’t very good at flirting.  At Tony’s comment, he merely loomed closer, peering down at Tony with intense focus.  He didn’t know what to say, but he felt his expression demonstrated his desires quite well.  Tony’s eyes turned nearly black with returned interest.  

Thor cleared his throat.  

Steve looked up to see Bucky, Thor, Natasha and Doc Green all staring at them.  He shrugged.  Now that he could remember how long it had been since he had sex, Steve didn’t really care to remain subtle.  

“What are we going to do?” Bucky asked.

“Anything you like,” Thor said, holding up his hands to gesture all around them.  “I assume you would like to stay together as a group, the four of you?”

Natasha looked up at Bucky with a secretive smile on her face.  She really was a very beautiful woman.  Bucky must be ecstatic that she wanted him.  Steve would have to ask later.  He would enjoy listening to his warbound expound on his joy.  

“Yes, I think so.  But what you, Doc?  Will you come with us?” Natasha asked the hulk.

Doc stared at Thor.  A message seemed to pass between them and the Doc nodded.  The tension he’d been carrying with him since Steve met the hulk back in Greenland melted away from his large frame.  “I don’t think I should, Miss Romanoff,” he said politely.

And then they all watched in silent shock as he clenched his fists and forced his gamma effect to retreat, shrinking down from a huge green giant into a still very tall human man with blond hair and oh so familiar blue eyes.  

Steve stared at himself.  Doc Green had transformed into a clean shaven and short-haired version of Steve Rogers.  His clothes shrank with him, a technology that Steve didn’t think they had in his world.

“As you can see, it might get a little crowded with both of us there,” the other Steve said.  He looked uncertain and awkward, as though lost without his extra girth to shield him.  Steve always did work best with a shield.

“You’re...but how?  How did you end up as a hulk?” Steve asked.  

“Experimentation.  The same way Bruce did, I believe, except I was experimented on by others,” his copy said.  Steve decided to continue calling him Doc Green in his head.  They seemed so unlike each other that Steve had no problem still referring to him by that name.  “They tried to start a super soldier program on my world.  I was the only that didn’t…”  Doc shook his head.  “I was the only one that could control the gamma.  The others died or were put down.”

“Why were you in Greenland?” Steve asked.

“Doom dumped me there.  After it happened, I was...people were afraid,” Doc said, his tone blank in memory of hurts Steve did not want to imagine.  “I had to get away from them.  For their sake as well as my own.  I ran into a group of Thors, who took me to him.  They thought I might be useful in Greenland as a spy for Doom.”

“But you wouldn’t,” Tony guessed.  Steve glanced at him.  Tony seemed utterly fascinated by this new version of Steve.  It made him feel uneasy and he shifted closer to Tony.  “No matter what happened to you, you’re still you.  Still Steve Rogers and you wouldn’t spy.”

“I told him I would, but it’s not as though he gave me a choice,” Doc said.  “I just wanted to be away from normal humans and among my own kind.”  He sighed and reached up to run fingers through his short blond hair.  When he spoke again, his voice sounded distant.  Steve thought he might be talking to himself more than the others.  “I really thought I belonged there.  That I was nothing, but gamma.”

Devil roared out a soft noise.  Steve nodded in agreement.  Perhaps he lost his way, but Doc Green was not just gamma.  He had helped them through everything.  “You needed a shield brother to help you,” Steve guessed.  “Your Bucky…?”

“Dead,” Doc said bluntly.  “Driven insane by the gamma.”

Bucky winced and Steve had the urge to go to him.  But luckily, Natasha was there to rub his arm comfortingly and Steve relaxed.  He would not have to watch out for Bucky alone anymore.  

“This isn’t fair,” Tony burst out.  “Thor, you have to do something for him.  Find him a place.  We can’t just...let him go off and be alone.”  

Thor considered the matter.  “I believe I know how to access the energy Doom had been using.  I was never as adept at magic as my brother, but I can see across the entirety of Nyrmidgard.  I believe I have just the place for you.  If you trust me.”

Doc Green looked at him for a long time.  “I don’t know if I trust you or not, but I’m ready to take a plunge.  It would be nice to start over again.  Now that you’ve given me the ability to control my gamma,” he said, giving Thor a knowing look.  Thor looked proud of himself.  Doc turned to the others and smiled.  “I don’t exactly know what to say.  Except...don’t take anything for granted, alright?”

Steve finally gave into his secretly building urge to take Tony’s hand.  “We won’t,” he promised, looking down at a surprised and pleased Tony.   

Thor picked up his hammer and placed a hand on Doc’s shoulder.  “I will return very shortly,” he said and then he swung the hammer in dizzying circles until it lifted off into the air, carrying him and Doc Green into nothingness.  Steve had just turned to ask Tony if he was hungry when Thor slammed back down to the ground again, this time alone.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Tony said, impressed.  “So now what?  We can’t live here in Jane’s broken house.”  

Jane smirked.  “Even if it wasn’t broken, I don’t really have the room.”

“Never fear, Stark,” Thor announced, grinning like an overgrown schoolboy and bouncing on his feet.  “I have set aside a place for you too.  Doon’s powers are exceedingly useful.”

Natasha reached up and touched Thor’s arm.  

“Thank you,” she said firmly.  

“It’s me that should be thanking you.  Had it not been for your appearance in Asgard, I might have spent hundreds of years mourning.  Wasting time.  Now I have purpose and place.  Two worlds to rule.  I cannot decide which I like better.”

“Duh, Starklandia,” Tony said.  

Thor merely snorted, but then his expression turned serious and fond as he looked on Jane.

“Most importantly, you’ve led me to a new friend I hope will help me understand this world better,” Thor said.  Jane didn’t quite understand at first, but when she did, she gave a little peeping noise that Steve found very endearing.

“Oh...me?” she squeaked.

“And me!  We came as a packaged deal,” Darcy said, throwing her arm around Jane.

Thor laughed.  “I would not dare split up the team.  We’ll talk more,” he promised a still stunned Jane.  “First, I must take my friends to their new home.  But don’t worry.  I will make sure you can visit,” he said when he noticed Tony gearing up to protest the separation from his new science buddy.  

“Prepare yourself,” Thor said a split second before he slammed his hammer down on the ground.  A blinding white light flashed in front of his eyes.  

When he blinked them open again, Steve stood in a grand room, an entrance hall of some kind.  Outside a window, he saw a vast backyard of green grasses and pretty flowering trees.  Devil was resting under a tree, looking very surprised by his new surroundings.  The technology in the room reminded him of their old Brooklyn.

And they weren’t alone in that room.  Standing there with them looking equally surprised was Rhodey, Carol, Jarvis and Bruce.  

“What...just happened?” Bruce asked warily.  

Carol looked like she wanted to start shooting, but Rhodey only grinned and jogged over to hug Tony.  “It’s good to see you, man!  Although...seriously, what did just happen?”

“Loaded question.  Hey, Jarvis!  You must be...Bruce?” Tony guessed, coming over to shake Bruce’s hand.  “Man, do we ever have a lot to tell you.  Let’s see if we can find some food though; I’m starved to death.  So Bruce, Steve tells me you’re an uncontrollable rage monster?”

“Yes...well, no.  I don’t know,” Bruce was saying as Tony led the little group out of the main room and into a dining area beyond.  “I feel different.  More stable.”

“Good old Thor.  So okay...here’s what happened…”

His voice faded away.  Steve looked up at Bucky and smiled.  

“I don’t think this place is in war,” he said.

“No,” Bucky agreed.  He paused for a long moment, then said, “But I don’t think it means we have to stop being warbound.”  

Steve felt relieved.  His world had expanded so much in the past week.  A new world to live in, free from Doom and a new soulbound partner.  He did not want to lose his warbound friend or his warbound dinosaur.  

“Tony is…”  Bucky said.  He shook his head and laughed.  “Well, he makes sense for you.”

“As does Natasha for you,” Steve said.

Bucky puffed up proudly.  “Yes, I think so.”  

Another long silence and then Bucky said, “It’s good to be home, isn’t it?”

Steve met Bucky’s grin with one of his own.  

“Yes, I think it is.”

****  
  


END

****  
  


Epilogue

Thor set them both down.  “Be wary, friend.  Your journey won’t be easy.  But I think it’ll be worthwhile.  Just remember...you are not the same Steve Rogers that was here before.  But you can be something here than he could not, though he may have wanted to be.”

Steve Rogers, formally Doc Green of Greenland, gave Thor an expectant look.

“Well?”

Thor just shook his head.  

“You will figure it out.”

  
Then he flung his hammer around his head and shot off into the hot sky.  Steve looked around him.  Thor had brought him to a warm dry climate.  Dusty and full of low grubby plants.  Further down the path, he saw a collection of rickety buildings, wooden walkways and men and women walking the streets dressed in old fashioned clothes.  Steve lifted an eyebrow.  Where in Nyrmidgard had Thor brought him?

Steve took one step toward the little town when a voice caught his ears.  A man’s low raspy tone singing what sounded like a church hymn.

“Rock of ages, cleft for me...let me hiiiide myself in theeee!”  

The man sounded drunk and in face, as he listened, Steve heard the man break off and then the sound of a bottle upturning.  Steve redirected toward the voice and walked.  As he came around a bend in the path, Steve felt his heart squeeze hard in his chest.  There sat Tony Stark on the ground beside a tree, his gray suit dusty from the ground and a bottle of scotch clutched in his hand.  

His mind flooded with memories.  The first time he’d ever seen his Tony at a party, chatting to a pretty woman in a red dress that Steve instantly hated.  Taking him home that night, winning him from the red dress lady.  Their first kiss.  The long stretch of gleaming skin as Tony lay naked on their bed, his body touched by moonlight.  The day he planned to propose, but Tony beat him to it.  Their wedding day.  

And then the later memories.  The ones that still tormented him.  Tony’s blank dead eyes staring up at him.  Tony’s blood everywhere on Steve’s hands, on his clothes, seeping into his bones.  His clever brilliant Tony cut down by a roadside bomb.  Steve had gone straight to the war cabinet after the funeral to volunteer for the super soldier program.  He’d wanted vengeance and now he realized it might have soured the experiment so much it failed.  

At times, Steve still wanted vengeance, but seeing this version of his Tony in such obvious pain knocked that feeling down a few notches.  

“Tony?”

Tony whipped his head around and stared at Steve in abject shock.  

“Sheriff?” he whispered.  “But it can’t be.  You’re dead.  They shot you.  You’re...you’re gone!”

Steve walked up to him and crouched down, reaching out to touch Tony’s face.  The worst part of staying with his previous party had been seeing his other self and the other Tony falling in love and knowing he could never be a part of it.  Maybe it wouldn’t happen here.  Thor was right; Steve wasn’t the same Steve this man knew and he wasn’t the same Tony Steve had married.  

But maybe...maybe a thread existed that pulled all versions of each of them together.  A sameness at their core.  

Or maybe it didn’t matter.  They were both alone and hurting.  Why not find comfort together?  

“I’m here now, Tony,” he said.  “It’s hard to explain, but...I’m here now.”

Tony held himself back for a brief moment and then suddenly he collapsed against Steve with a shuddered sob.  Steve gathered Tony against his chest, holding him tightly.  

He still had much to explain to Tony.  They had a great deal to figure out together.  But all that mattered to him then was that for the first time in what felt like years, Steve was exactly where he belonged.  

****  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This story contains explicit spoilers from Planet Hulk, Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Thors and 1872. I didn't intend to sit down and write a Wizard of Oz fic. I started off with Steve losing his memory. Then I decided I wanted Tony to explode light from his chest, so he lost his heart. Then I wanted to bring Thor in and oh I bet he'd be really down and lacking some courage without his teammates....oh and hey, I guess Loki is the Wizard they seek, which makes Doom the Wicked Witch and the Thors his flying monkeys...Kageka pointed it out to me, thank you to him for that. This is the first big bang I have ever finished and it was fun (and stressful lol). Thanks for reading!
> 
> P.S. I guess Bucky is Dorothy and Devil is Toto...


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